Plan B Forum

Flint Sends Overdue Notices to Residents Who Aren’t Paying for Their Water, Which Is Poison

By Ben Mathis-Lilley

Flint, Michigan, is sending out notices to residents who haven't been paying for their city water services. The notices say that services could be cut off if payment isn't received. This is a normal civic administrative practice except for one thing: Flint's water is so badly poisoned that the National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency have been called in to manage the situation, which has left residents drinking bottled water that's being given out as an emergency measure.

In a matter that, remarkably, appears unrelated to the problems involving the toxic elements in the water, the city had been enjoined last year from sending overdue notices because of a lawsuit accusing it of raising service rates improperly. But with that restriction lifted, and after a break from issuing notices over the holidays, "officials say they will again start sending warnings to those behind on their bills," the MLive site reported Thursday.*

As MLive notes in dry fashion:

Some residents have expressed outrage over the fact they are being billed for water they cannot drink without filtration due to elevated lead levels found in water in some Flint homes.

Sounds about right.

The problem dates back to April 2014, when Flint was under the direction of an emergency manager appointed by the state to try to fix the broken city. (Michigan law provides for the governor to select managers, and the provision has been used in several places in recent years, most prominently Detroit.) To save money, the city began drawing its water from the Flint River, rather than from Detroit’s system, which was deemed too costly. But the river’s water was high in salt, which helped corrode Flint’s aging pipes, leaching lead into the water supply.

The move saved millions, but the problems started becoming apparent almost immediately. The water starting smelling like rotten eggs. Engineers responded to that problem by jacking up the chlorine level, leading to dangerous toxicity. GM discovered that city water was corroding engines at a Flint factory and switched sources. Then children and others started getting rashes and falling sick.

Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech environmental-engineering professor, found that the water had nearly 900 times the recommend EPA limit for lead particles. As my colleague Alana Semuels noted in a deeply reported feature in July 2015, residents believe the city knew about problems as soon as May 2014. Yet as late as February 2015, even after tests showed dangerous lead levels, officials were telling residents there was no threat.

Long Run wrote:Agreed that officials that knew of the problem should face jail time. However, even though the water is not potable, it can be used for other purposes. And if the users aren't paying for it, then who is going to do so? Clearly, the FUBAR that is Flint needs all the revenue it can get to pay to fix its water system and its other man-made disasters, and better the users be on the hook than taxpayers across the state and country who had no role in this disaster.

Scooter wrote:The state is responsible because the decision to use Flint River water was made by the city manager appointed by the state.

Long Run wrote:

Scooter wrote:The state is responsible because the decision to use Flint River water was made by the city manager appointed by the state.

Good point. It's not my problem, it's MI problem.