Residents of Flint, Mich., have spent the last two years fearing the fluid meant to sustain them, and for good reason. After all, they have been told — by scientists and their own government officials — that the water coming out of their taps could do irreversible harm to their children’s neurological health.
Such has been the reality in a city where untreated water leached lead off aging pipes before making its messy way out of residents’ faucets. The Flint water crisis has been called “a national embarrassment,” “a crime of epic proportions” and a “public health disaster.”
So when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) arrived in the city last week to encourage residents to start drinking filtered water from their taps, no one could blame them for hesitating.
Their challenge to Snyder, according to the Detroit Free Press?
You try it first.
The Free Press reported that residents wanted Snyder to come to their homes and personally test their tap water before they risked drinking it themselves.
“Yes, if someone…I’m happy to look into that,” Snyder told reporters.
The governor, who has been called on to resign amid accusations that his administration was negligent in its response to the emergency, followed up on this promise on Monday.
After visiting a house with confirmed high levels of lead, the Associated Press reported, Snyder left with five gallons of filtered water that he pledged to drink for at least a month.
“What better way to help show support,” he told the AP, adding that he will continue to get refills from other Flint homes for the next 30 days.
After the financially troubled city switched its water source resulting in both discolored water running from taps and concerns about the health of its children, eventually suspicions in Flint turned to science, as independent researchers and the state itself found that the lead in children’s blood had reached dangerous levels, an escalation corresponding with the change in water source.
The World Health Organization has found that lead affects children’s brain development, resulting in reduced IQ and behavioral issues that could lead to criminal activity.
Since evidence of the health consequences have become public, Flint has been inundated with media attention and one declaration of emergency after another, yet things have remained slow to change.
Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who played a pivotal role in drawing attention to the crisis, told The Washington Post last week that “despite very positive trends,” potentially hazardous levels persist in Flint’s unfiltered water.
As a result, residents have been told to drink water from their taps only if it has undergone filtration.
“All Flint residents should continue to use bottled water, or Flint water passed through a lead filter, for cooking or drinking until further notice,” a Virginia Tech study concluded last week.
Snyder’s announcement on Monday angered some, as commenters on his Facebook statement noted that 30 days of filtered water could not be equated with the experience of Flint residents over the last two years. For months after the water source switch, city and state officials denied that the water was unsafe despite growing complaints from the community.
“Be sure to get enough and give it to your grandchildren!” one user wrote. “Continue to have Flint water delivered to them daily for a year or so and then talk about it!”
Another said: “You weren’t washing yourself and your babies in it…”
“I completely understand why some Flint residents are hesitant to drink the water,” Snyder said in his statement, “and I am hopeful I can alleviate some of the skepticism and mistrust by putting words to action.”
The governor’s wife, Sue Snyder, “is on board” with the project, Snyder told the Free Press. The couple have three children who no longer live at home.
Officials have encouraged residents to start drinking filtered water from the tap to help the distribution system recover with treated water running through it. But many residents are still wary, and rely on the free bottled water handed out at distribution stations across the city.
More of The Post’s coverage on the water crisis in Flint, Mich.: