Ex Astris Scientia

Michigan Gothic

There is only Faygo. No milk, no beer, no liquor has graced us in decades. There is only the artificial taste of Faygo. No one even likes it. You take a drink.

A small child tries to fold a paper airplane. He looks down and is upset to see a Ford truck, folded perfectly. It is an F-150. He tries to make an airplane again. This time he folds a Model T. He begins to cry.

“The water is clean!” Cries Flint mayor Dayne Walling. Brown water with sediment still flows from our taps. “The Flint River isn’t polluted anymore!” He insists nervously. Beads of sweat form on his brow. He clutches a bottle of Evian water in his sweaty hand.

The potholes move and grow at night, they consume cars and children alike. My father had to drive to Detroit last week. ‘Beware of the potholes,’ I warned him. I haven’t seen him since.

The sirens are tested every first Saturday of the month. You hear the sirens, but realize its only Friday. Its not the sirens, but children screaming instead.

The Detroit Red Wings never stop playing. There is a game every night. This has been going on for years and the players miss their families. Please let the Red Wings rest.

A body is pulled from the Flint River one hazy morning. The distant sound of Dayne Walling can be heard over the wind, “The water is clean!” He cries. The body resembles you.

I’m reposting this story in it’s entirety because the situation is getting dire and no one’s helping.

[Top] Gina Reynolds, a University of Michigan Flint student majoring in social work, chants “clean water is a human right,” at cars passing by during a small protest Jan. 13

[Bottom] People bring water from their taps to show city officials at city meeting, Jan. 21

I made a post earlier about my city of Flint, Michigan’s water situation and I wanted to share this because our drinking water is literally making people and pets ill. I don’t want people to ignore this, I NEED people to know what’s going on here.

LeeAnne Walters, 36, of Flint shows water samples from her home to Flint emergency manager Jerry Ambrose on Wednesday after city and state officials spoke during a forum that addressed growing health concerns about the drinking water.

In a city where residents have felt under siege for years — from crime, bad press and an emergency manager some feel forced upon them — the newest threat pours from kitchen spigots and showerheads.

It’s the reason behind mysterious rashes on local children, parents say. Unexplained illnesses. Even sick pets.

Bethany Hazard said it’s the reason for the brown rust circles that began appearing just months ago around her drains and the oily film in her bathwater in her longtime east-side home.

On the west side of Flint, Corodon Maynard said it’s the reason he was bent retching violently over the toilet this month — just hours after chugging two glasses of water at bedtime.

“I was throwing up like bleach water. It came up through my nose burning,” said the 20-year-old.

The water from the city system is so corrosive, according to General Motors officials, that the automaker’s Flint Engine Operations pulled off the city water system, connecting instead into a water system operated by nearby Flint Township.

Adam Mays, an artist and Flint resident, protests the condition of the Flint water system at Fifth and Saginaw in Downtown Flint, Michigan, with a few handfuls of other protestors, Tuesday afternoon, January 13, 2015.

So what’s in Flint’s water and just how dangerous is it?

It depends on who you ask and what tests you’re referring to.

State tests suggest the water is clear of coliform bacteria, which can suggest the presence of other disease-carrying pathogens.

But as a result of treating the water to kill any dangerous microorganisms, the water now carries low levels of Total Trihalomethane, or TTHM, a by-product of the disinfectants. Years of exposure may cause liver, kidney or central nervous system problems and an increased risk of cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The city maintains the water — pulled from the Flint River rather than the Detroit water system that had served the city for years —is safe.

Mayor Dayne Walling who was born and raised in Flint, said he drinks it.

The river, long known for the toxins left from Flint’s industrial years, is cleaner than it has been in years, “but that perception persists,” Walling said.

Flint resident Gladyes Williamson-Bunnell asks officials addressing issues with the water quality if they would drink some of the Flint water she held up in a gallon jug during the water meeting on Wednesday evening, Jan. 21, 2015, at the Flint City Hall dome in downtown Flint.

“I’ve taken to calling it ‘poop water,’ ” said Nayyirah Shariff, a community activist for the grassroots group Democracy Defense League.

Many said they are ready to abandon longtime homes.

“What we have is a full-blown crisis,” said GM retiree Claire McClinton who had bundled up against the snow earlier this week to run into El Potrero Mexican restaurant for a late lunch.

But she reconsidered at the last minute and walked out instead, worried about eating at restaurants that rely on city water in their kitchens.

She’s not the only customer who is concerned.

Business overall has been hit “probably 20 to 30%,” said manager Jorge Alcazar.

The restaurant’s lifeblood is in customers seeking a quick, affordable lunch, often with a glass of ice water.

Unwilling to drink the tap water, customers also don’t want to pay $2 or more for a pop or buy a bottled water.

Worse for waitress Ashley Trujillo, customers have argued with staff. One customer left three pennies as a tip after fuming about having to pay for water. Others have left nothing.

“Like we have something to do with it,” Trujillo said.

All of this — the frustration, the slump in El Potrero’s business, the jam-packed meetings with residents toting jugs of brown water and claims they are being poisoned — are the latest blows to a city that has felt swatted around for too long.

“People think all the crime happens in Flint and everyone is poor in Flint, so there’s this stigma. Now we’re fighting against dirty water. Really?” said radiology coder Cindy Marshall, who joined about two dozen protesters earlier this week.

“Are you trying to kill us?” read one sign. “No more poison,” read another.

McClinton echoed Marshall’s sentiments: “We’ve lost confidence in the city.”

A protestor holds a sign out for cars to see during the protest of the conditions of the Flint water system at Fifth and Saginaw in Downtown Flint, Michigan, Tuesday afternoon, January 13, 2015.

Soaring bills.

For years, residents in this city bleeding jobs and soaked in red ink have been facing growing water bills. Some have climbed as high as several hundred dollars a month.

“We have residents choosing between water and groceries and other bills,” said Hazard, whose own bill is about $100 a month for a single person.

“I feel like I’m going under,” said Hazard, who survived cancer twice and who was forced into early retirement and limited income.

The city eventually decided to dump the Detroit system in favor of the Karegnondi Water Authority, which is building a system to supply Genesee County with water pulled from Lake Huron. In the long run, this will mean lower water costs, officials have said.

Under the plan, Flint is temporarily pulling water from the Flint River until the water authority’s system comes online, expected in 2016.

In August and September, however, the city issued three advisories to boil the water after detecting coliform bacteria.

Just before Christmas, residents received notices that state tests indicated higher-than-acceptable levels of trihalomethane, the disinfectant by-product.

Hazard’s cats have been sick. So has she and several neighbors. Even her houseplant began to die.

Maynard threw up. Residents complained of rashes and mysterious illnesses.

“We just want safe water. How hard is that?” Hazard asked.

But assurances come with qualifiers.

The chlorine did its job and cleaned the water of microbial pathogens that can cause disease within days. That means the water is safe for healthy people to drink for a short time, said Michael Prysby, a district engineer in the state’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance.

But the trade-off was TTMH — possibly a danger for the very young, the very old, or the very sick if they ingest it long-term, he added.

People with prolonged exposure to TTMH may experience problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system and have an increased risk of getting cancer.

“But we’re talking decades,” he said, adding that those who are worried should talk to their doctors.

“We don’t want to make a blanket statement to say water is safe or unsafe. It’s misleading both ways.”

That’s the kind of answer that infuriates Marshall, the protester and mother of a 5-year-old.

“They said it’s safe, but it’s brown water,” said Marshall, also a radiology coder, after the meeting. “Why do we have to drink brown water? No one else has to drink brown water.”

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Update for September 16, 2015

So, it's been about 9 months and the water has not gotten any better. As a matter of fact, it’s worse now. Here’s a picture taken just a few hours ago.

From the Facebook post associated with this picture “This fire hydrant in Flint, Michigan has been “flushing” for over 5-hours… after 5-hours, that’s not flushing… that is the water quality in Flint. ”

Fire hydrants carry CLEAN, TREATED water. This is our “clean and treated water”. This is the water that we have to drink.

And that’s not all. Water tests have been conducted in the last few days and in every district they checked, the amount of sites with over 15ppb of lead in the water has either gone up or stayed the same. You can see the results here at http://flintwaterstudy.org

Update for September 24th, 2015

Flint mayor Dayne Walling is letting his people be poisoned and is continuing to deny it.

The lead content in Flint children’s blood has spiked in the past year.

In perhaps the most dramatic proof yet of the toxic impact of Flint’s decision to draw municipal water from the Flint River, a new study released today shows that the amount of lead found in the bloodstream of Flint children increased dramatically following the switch from the Detroit water system in 2014.

The results — which are based on blood samples drawn from 1,746 children ages 5 and younger — were even more frightening in Flint neighborhoods where Virginia Tech researchers testing water from nearly 300 homes found the highest levels of lead in the city’s water. Analysis of blood samples from children living in those same high-risk areas showed that the number of kids with elevated levels of lead in their blood jumped from 2.5 percent to 6.3 percent.

The following statement was released by Congressman Dan Kildee earlier today:

“This new study showing elevated blood lead levels among Flint’s children is very troubling. People have the right to have confidence that their drinking water is safe.
Immediate action needs to be taken by the State of Michigan to ensure that relief is provided to people who are concerned about lead levels in their water. Today as part of my ongoing efforts, I talked with the EPA Region 5 Administrator about the State of Michigan providing emergency assistance, including lead-clearing filters and bottled water, until a more permanent solution can be determined.
This new study by the medical community also raises additional doubts about prior water testing done by the DEQ and EPA that stated the water was in compliance with federal law. I have been completely unsatisfied with their answers to my questions regarding their testing methodology, which is why I have called for additional immediate independent and scientific testing to be done.”

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