A Toxic Timeline of Flint’s Water Fiasco. Nearly 9,000 children in Flint were exposed to toxic levels of lead for 18 months, the impacts of which might not be known for years. Almost immediately, residents reported that the water looked, tasted and smelled bad. Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts. Lead-Laced Water in Flint: A Step-By-Step Look At The Makings Of A Crisis. And some of the 100,000 people in Flint developed strange new ailments, including rashes and hair loss. (2016, January 5). Flint was to join the Karegnondi Water Authority but drew water from the Flint River in the interim period. City of Flint Issues Lead Advisory. EPA will continue to oversee the City’s efforts to transition to a long-term drinking water source and also monitor its replacement of lead (and galvanized) service lines throughout Flint. (durno.mark@epa.gov) Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know. (2019, January 1). City issues boil water advisories after bacterial contamination of water is discovered. Data from EPA, MDEQ, Virginia Tech and others demonstrated significant progress. et al. Retrieved from, Johnson, G. (2016, December 8). Snyder declares emergency for Genesee County. Flint Water Crisis Deaths Likely Surpass Official Toll. Flint has taken important steps toward resolving the lead contamination crisis that made the impoverished Michigan city a symbol of the drinking water problems that … Health Risk of the Trihalomethanes Found in Drinking Water Carcinogenic Activity and Interactions. For several weeks now, city and state officials have traded barbs over who is ultimately responsible for the toxic water that's inundated Flint, Michigan. Retrieved from, Smith, M., Bosman, J. One of our content team members will be in touch with you soon. The highest lead level found in Flint was an astounding 13,000 ppb. State says Flint River water meets all standards but more than twice the hardness of lake water. Retrieved from, Madrigal, A. President Obama Signs Michigan Emergency Declaration. But the money-saving move proved disastrous for residents. Lead concentrations in water should not exceed 15 parts per billion. State of Emergency Declared in the City of Flint. A timeline of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. (2018, August 21). Gov. Flint switches to the Flint River for its main water source. The bacteria, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms, suggest that the water supply was contaminated with either human or animal feces. At the time, the cash-strapped city was building a new water pipeline to deliver water from Lake Huron to Flint, and the cheaper river water was supposed to be a temporary fix until the pipeline was finished. Michigan Gov. The Flint Water Crisis: What’s Really Going On? Flint residents can sue the federal government over water crisis, judge rules. Retrieved from, Ruckart, P.Z. Retrieved from, Siddhartha, R. (2015, September 24). Judge rules Flint Residents can sue federal government over water crisis. Updates from the City of Flint and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality can be found on their websites: EPA has awarded a $100 million grant to MDEQ to fund drinking water infrastructure upgrades in Flint. Adding the proper anti-corrosive chemicals to protect the water would have cost about $140 per day. Retrieved from, City of Flint. Since January 2016, EPA has been monitoring compliance with its emergency administrative order (as amended) to ensure that Flint’s drinking water system continues to improve. LeeAnne Walters’ 4-year-old twin boys developed itchy, scaly rashes any time they bathed and her teenage son was in and out of the hospital, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. People outside the government who were veterans of the D.C. water contamination and coverup helped blow the whistle in Flint. (2019, April 18). (2018, January). Water from the Flint River made some people sick. (2016, February 18). The top acceptable limit is 15 ppb, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. “Regardless of this information and the fact that my son had lead poisoning, the city and the [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] still continued to tell everyone the water was safe, as the EPA sat by and watched in silence,” Walters would later tell a Congressional committee investigating the matter. City officials vowed the water was safe to drink and promised residents they wouldn’t notice any difference in water quality. Retrieved from. Retrieved from, CBS News. Our writers and editors follow strict guidelines for written and visual content, including vetting all sources and verifying quotes and statistics, to guarantee honesty and integrity in our reporting. Rick Snyder declares a state of emergency for Genesee County. Retrieved from, Fonger, R. (2014, May 23). Retrieved from, Carmody, S. (2018, April 25). Retrieved from, Fonger, R. (2014, August). Between January and June 2015, lead sampling performed by the city of Flint showed that levels of lead in the city’s water “were rapidly rising,” according to a report by the EPA. General Motors says it will no longer use water from the Flint River because of machine corrosion. People exposed to Flint’s lead-tainted drinking water can now sign up for registry. Others complained of water that smelled like rotten eggs or had an orange or brown tint to it. All content is thoroughly researched and verified at each stage of the publication process. But the differences were profound. Retrieved from, Renwick, D. (2019, April 25). An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease also affected the city between 2014 and 2015. Without These Whisteblowers, We May Never Have Known the Full Extent of the Flint Water Crisis. The Lead Poisoning in Flint Points to a Nationwide Problem. Almost a year after public-health officials first warned about lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan, the city’s toxic water-supply crisis is receiving a national response. Retrieved from, Burgess et al. (2019, April 23). Retrieved from, City of Flint. The crisis in the struggling industrial city of 100,000 dates to April 2014, when Flint switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in order to save money. (n.d.). This was intended as a short-term money-saving measure as the city prepared to connect to the new regional water system. “While this Court will not decide today the issue of ultimate liability, it can today state with certainty that the acts leading to the creation of the Flint Water Crisis, alleged to be rooted in lies, recklessness and profound disrespect have and will continue to produce a heinous impact for the people of Flint,” Parker wrote. Retrieved from, Edwards, M. (2015, September 8). The city issued yet another boil water advisory on Jan. 2, 2015, because of high concentrations of trihalomethanes, which are chemical byproducts of chlorine disinfection methods. (2018, August 29). Testimony of Lee-Anne Walters Examining Federal Administration of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Flint, Michigan. Officials charged in Flint water crisis back in court this week, 2 years after first indictments. In some areas of the city, it had tripled. Retrieved from, The Associated Press. Emergency Response ContactMark Durno The water is now testing at 6 parts per billion (ppb) which is much lower than the federal requirement of 15 ppb. Retrieved from, Virginia Tech. The Flint water crisis: A loss of trust. Criticism of the state and federal response has grown in recent days over the crisis in Flint, a financially strapped city of just under 100,000 residents about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Detroit. Retrieved from, Natural Resources Defense Council. It’s Not Over. Retrieved from, Roy, Siddhartha. Factory employees worried what the water was doing to their bodies if it was doing this to car engines. Lead wasn’t the only contaminant found in Flint’s water. (2019, January 3). Retrieved from, Stateside Staff & Carmody, S. (2018, February 6). But the pipe replacement efforts have also come under scrutiny. 18-10243. Snyder seeks $6 million to help fix Flint water. This mom helped uncover what was really going on with Flint’s water. (n.d.). Retrieved from, City of Flint. Gov. City tests detect high levels of lead in tap water. The Flint mayor declared a state of emergency on December 14, 2015, followed by the governor of Michigan declaring a state of emergency for Genesee County on January 5, 2016.19,20 President Obama issued an emergency declaration on January 16, 2016, and the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) was designated as the principal federal agency of the Unified Coordination Group for response and recovery efforts.21The HHS, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/th… Retrieved from, Denchak, M. (2018, November 8). Even General Motors, a local manufacturer, complained about the water and stopped using it because it was damaging car parts manufactured in their plant. Retrieved from, Kennedy, M. (2016, April 20). Retrieved from, Automotive News. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Letter from EPA to Michigan DNR, City of Flint. That's two years since the people in Flint first started complaining about the condition of their drinking water. Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning because their brains and neurological systems are still developing and they’re small in size. Lethal Pneumonia Outbreak Caused By Low Chlorine In Flint Water. Although it was once a thriving industrial centre, the city of Flint in souteastern Michigan In the meantime, more than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against Michigan and the city of Flint, and in April, a federal judge said Flint residents may proceed with a lawsuit against the EPA. v. United States of America. Former Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, who dealt directly with Gina McCarthy during the Flint water crisis, says she disappointed that the former head … Hazardous Waste-levels of Lead found in a Flint household’s water. How GM saved itself from the Flint Water crisis: rusting engine blocks flagged big problem. Consumernotice.org adheres to the highest ethical standards for content production and distribution. How a Feel-Good AI Story Went Wrong in Flint. Virginia Tech researchers announce high levels of lead in 101 out of 252 water samples from Flint. According to the Governor’s office, the amount of lead found in Flint’s water is now less than half the current federal action level, according to independent tests. 51% of households felt that the physical health of at least one member had worsened due to Flint water crisis What was the outcome? True Grit: Pediatrician proves Michigan community’s water was poisoning children. (2015, August 24). Flint Water Crisis. The lead-pipe hit rate plummeted from roughly 70 percent in 2017 to about 15 percent in December 2018. Retrieved from, Harrison, K. (2016). Retrieved from, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Was Flint’s deadly Legionnaires’ epidemic caused by low chlorine levels in the water supply? 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