Lee-Anne Walters says she will never use tap water again. At her Flint home she warms bottled water for her sons’ weekly baths PHOTOGRAPH BY RYAN GARZA THE TOXIC TAP HOW A DISASTROUS CHAIN OF EVENTS CORRODED FLINT’S WATER SYSTEM— AND THE PUBLIC TRUST BY JOSH SANBURN / FLINT, MICH. LaShanti Redmond, 10, has her lead level checked during an event at a local school The firsT Thing many residents noticed after appointed by the governor. It wasn’t until late Sep- water from the Flint River began flowing through tember 2015, when researchers at Hurley Medical their taps was the color. Blue one day, tinted green Center in Flint reported that the incidence of lead the next, sometimes shades of beige, brown, yellow. contamination in the blood of children under 5 had Then there was the smell. It was ripe and pungent— EFFECTS doubled since the switch, that officials began to ac- some likened it to gasoline, others to the inside of a OF LEAD IN knowledge the scope of the crisis. fish market. After a couple of months, Melissa Mays, THE BODY Since then, an emergency that had been brewing a 37-year-old mother of four, says her hair started to largely out of sight has erupted into a national con- fall out in clumps, clogging the shower drain. She 1 cern. Presidential candidates from both parties have broke out in rashes and developed a respiratory in- HARM TO THE been asked about it on the campaign trail. Senator fection, coughing up phlegm that tasted like clean- BLOOD Bernie Sanders called for Michigan Governor Rick Lead is first ing products. absorbed into Snyder, a Republican, to resign, while his Democratic Mays wasn’t alone. Since April 2014, when Flint the blood, where rival Hillary Clinton framed it as a matter of race and began drawing its water from the local river instead it interferes with inequality at the latest Democratic debate. “We’ve of buying Lake Huron water from Detroit—in order proper function. For had a city in the United States of America where the to save money—residents in this ailing industrial city kids, experts say no population, which is poor in many ways and majority level is safe. began complaining of burning skin, hand tremors, African American, has been drinking and bathing in hair loss, even seizures. Children were being diag- 2 lead-contaminated water,” Clinton said Jan. 17. “I’ll nosed with anemia. Parents were finding strange red DAMAGE TO tell you what—if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit splotches on their hands and faces. THE BRAIN had been drinking contaminated water and being Yet for almost 19 months, as Flint River water Lead exposure is bathed in it there would’ve been action.” corroded the city’s decades-old pipes and leached very dangerous for President Obama weighed in during a visit to De- lead into the sinks and showers of a city of almost kids under age 6, troit on Jan. 20. “I know that if I was a parent up since it impacts 100,000 people, officials repeatedly told residents their rapidly growing there, I would be beside myself that my kids’ health the water was fine. Flint’s mayor appeared in front brains. IQ and ability could be at risk,” he said. “It is a reminder of why you of TV cameras and gulped it down. A spokesman for to pay attention can can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to the state’s top environmental regulator said anyone be affected. our people.” concerned about the water should “relax.” A warn- Over the past month, the wheels of government, ing memo written by a specialist at the U.S. Envi- which had barely turned for over a year, creaked ronmental Protection Agency went unheeded, and a into action. On Jan. 12, seven days after declaring city council vote to return the city to Detroit’s supply a state of emergency, Snyder mobilized the Na- was overruled by an unelected emergency manager tional Guard to patrol the city and hand out water. 34 Time February 1, 2016 Construction on a new Governor Rick Snyder was pipeline to connect Flint contrite in a statewide to Lake Huron water address on Jan. 19 Four days later, President Obama designated Flint has fallen so far through the cracks that it feels as if as a federal emergency area and freed $5 million in the rest of the country has left it behind. The me- aid. And on Jan. 20, as calls for him to resign over dian income is less than $25,000—roughly half the his handling of the crisis grew louder, Snyder used state average. Predominantly Democratic and Afri- his State of the State address to announce that he 3 can American, over 60% of Flint and the surround- was seeking $28 million in state funding for Flint LONG-TERM ing Genesee County voted for Snyder’s opponent in while offering a belated apology. “Government BUILDUP 2014. And since 2011, it has largely been run by a failed you,” Snyder said. “I am sorry, and I will fix it.” Chronic exposure series of unelected emergency managers appointed to lead can lead to To the residents of Flint, the sudden attention accumulations in by Snyder. These managers, whose authority super- does little to offset more than a year’s worth of ne- organs and bones. sedes that of local elected officials, made critical deci- glect. High levels of lead can lead to developmental The metal can sions that helped bring on the water crisis and make problems and brain damage, and children under the remain in bones it worse. “We’re poor,” says John Pemberton, 67, a age of 6 are considered especially vulnerable. Local for years after Flint resident. “And because we don’t have anybody exposure. cases of Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially deadly on our side that has any clout, Snyder didn’t care.” form of pneumonia, spiked after Flint switched its 4 Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint pediatrician water supply. Ten of the 87 sickened people died, and whose research confirmed the rising lead levels, has INSIDIOUS UPTAKE health officials are now investigating a link between If a person’s diet since been praised for her work, with Snyder call- the outbreak and the river water. And though the is low in calcium or ing her out by name in his State of the State. But she city returned to Detroit’s water supply in October, iron, the body may is unsparing in her diagnosis of what went wrong: the lead pipes remain so corroded that officials say confuse lead for “They were being neglected,” she says at her office the water is still unsafe to drink. A decision made to those nutrients and in Hurley’s children’s ward. “Moms were complain- absorb it instead. A save money has crippled the city’s aging infrastruc- healthy diet helps. ing. People were going to town-hall meetings and ture and potentially poisoned a generation of kids. getting arrested. But nobody listened to them. It had “We’re not a third-world country,” says Flint resident to take evidence that children were being poisoned Tonya Burns. “Water is a natural right.” for people to listen, and that is too late.” How can government fail at a job so fundamen- tal we take it as a given? The answer is a disastrous The ciTy’s born-and-bred residents—who some- combination of bad policy, shortsighted decisions times call themselves “Flintstones”—can still re- and bureaucratic malfeasance. Added up, the chain member when Flint was not just a thriving city but of neglect and incompetence has led many in Flint a place where the American Dream took root. The to see something more sinister: an absence of de- reason is printed on the signs that still arch above PREVIOUS PAGES: DETROIT FREE PRESS/ZUMA; THESE PAGES, FROM LEFT: JAKE MAY—THE FLINT JOURNAL–MLIVE/AP; JIM WEST—ZUMA; AL GOLDIS—AP mocracy. The city that gave birth to General Motors Saginaw Street, which crosses the winding yellow- 35 2015 ANATOMY JUNE 26 AUG. 14 OF A CRISIS Emergency City The poisoning of the water manager ofcials APRIL 25 supply in Flint resulted from Ed Kurtz hires issue a boil Flint disconnects a disastrous combination of an engineering advisory OCT. 13 GM from the Detroit poor management, bad rm to help the after E. coli announces it water system decisions and missed signs city switch to bacteria are will stop using using Flint discovered the water at River water in the water its Flint plant because it’s 2014 corroding NOV. 8 Governor engine parts Rick Snyder declares a state of financial emergency MARCH 25 Flint SPRING Residents SUMMER in Flint, which is approves a plan to report strange smells Local doctors facing a $15 million stop buying water and colors in the water see a rise in 2011 from Detroit to reports of Flint budget decit, and 2013 appoints an save $19 million rashes, hair emergency manager over eight years; loss and other to oversee the city it will switch to ailments Lake Huron water when a new pipeline is 2012 completed in 2016 ish-green Flint River: FlinT, Vehicle ciTy. Over a the river as an interim source originated with emer- century ago, General Motors started here. Buick and gency manager Ed Kurtz. (Kurtz did not respond to Chevrolet once called the city home, as did a range of requests for comment.) What is clear is that in June related industries whose factories dotted the banks 2013, two months after the city voted to join the of the river.