A Decade After the Crisis, Citizens Of Flint Still Search For Solutions

Nearly 10 years have passed since the beginning of the Flint Water Crisis, and the city still doesn’t have clean drinking water. However, organizations and residents are still keen to demand justice and lasting change through civil lawsuits, legal advocacy, and alternative solutions. 

Mari Copeny, the 16-year-old also known as “Little Miss Flint,” is one of those residents. Copeny became the face of the Flint Water Crisis after she wrote letters requesting former President Barack Obama to visit her hometown in 2016. During his visit, the former president declared a federal state of emergency to address the root of the water problem. 

The Floodgates Open

In April 2014, a state-appointed emergency manager switched the city of Flint, Michigan’s water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River in order to save money during a financial crisis. However, officials failed to add corrosion inhibitors to the water, exposing around 100,000 residents to a caramel-colored water supply filled with lead that leached from old pipes. An outbreak of Legionelle’s diseases killed 12 people and affected 87 more. 

“For months local officials and the media claimed the water was fine and that the residents were overreacting, even as scientists began to uncover just how bad the water crisis was,” Copeny wrote in a campaign for her water filters. “Many homes had water comparable to toxic waste.”

Although the city switched back to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in October 2015, the pipes continued leaking lead and affecting residents’ health, prompting President Obama's visit. In 2016, water samples declared the levels of lead to be under the federal action standard of 9 parts per billion, but citizens want to see the number fall to zero. Most residents still don’t trust the city’s water despite the official reports. 

Flint provided free water bottles to residents until April 2018, so Copeny raised $250k to supply over one million water bottles to families. She pivoted to partner with company Hydroviv a year later to focus on funding water filters for families to avoid pollution from single-use plastic water bottles. 

“While bottled water can be a good solution for [an] immediate fix to a crisis, it is not a sustainable fix when the world is drowning in plastic pollution,” Copeny wrote. “In Flint, I see that people are spending hours in line to receive donations [of] bottled water. By giving people the ability to have safe water, on demand in their home, they won’t have to take time off from work or spend their weekends lined up to get bottled water.”

‍

Wading Through The Mess 

Throughout the decade, Flint has invested millions of dollars in new water infrastructure, including lead service pipes replacements, reservoir renovations, a new chemical feed building, and a secondary water pipeline for emergencies. However, officials state around 3% of the city is still undergoing pipeline replacement. 

The water crisis has led to a 12% lower fertility rate and a 58% increase in fetal death rates. The city’s rate of special education students has grown; several families claim lead exposure has caused or exacerbated their childrens’ disabilities. Resident Dianna Brown, who was in high school when the crisis began, now manages her own cognitive and behavioral issues she believes are a result of lead exposure. 

As a member of environmental justice organization Young, Gifted & Green, Brown advocates for justice from lead exposure in other predominantly Black and Latinx communities. Flint residents have taken a multitude of court cases against government officials and water engineers, claiming negligence in their responsibility to the city. Brown was disappointed when the Michigan Supreme Court dismissed former Governor Eric Snyder’s misdemeanor charges in November 2023. 

“It was a slap in the face,” Brown said. “Especially with Synder not being held accountable for his actions, causing harm to a whole population, a whole community of people were majority Black in poverty. There’s so many layers.” 

On February 1st, 2024, the engineering firm Veolia North America agreed to pay a $25 million settlement to Flint families. This comes on top of the largest settlement of $626 million from the state of Michigan in 2021. However, many residents are upset that a third of the payout went to the prosecutors, leaving some families still waiting for payments that include $1,500 per minor. 

The Future Of Flint

The decade of the Flint Water Crisis has taught residents that if they don’t consistently demand justice, the city won’t deliver it. Now that the city provides free water filters to residents, Copeny has turned her vision to other cities with toxic drinking water across the country. She hopes her water filters can grant more families and children access to clean drinking water when local governments refuse to do so. 

“Since starting my filter fund 4 years ago we have been able to distribute the equivalent of over 100 MILLION bottles of water without a single piece of plastic going into a landfill and have filters in home from coast to coast,” Copeny wrote. “We are 75% of the way to our goal of $1M. Every day there is a new headline of a new community facing a water crisis, and people can't afford to wait for the government to come fix it.”

‍

What You Can Do

• A decade after the Water Crisis, Flint still doesn’t have clean water. Support grassroots organizations like Flint Rising who continue to demand justice.
• Donate to Mari Copeny’s water filter fund to provide clean drinking water to homes across the United States.
• Check out Young, Gifted, & Green for Environmental Justice programs. 

‍

Hero image by George Thomas