Flint Water Crisis: The Aftermath
/At the beginning of this year I started blogging about the Flint water crisis, which was spiraling out of control and making national headlines (see my posts here and here). The headlines have moved on, but problems with water infrastructure and services linger. Cara Cunningham Warren (University of Detroit Mercy School of Law) just released a new paper looking at the broader ramifications of Flint and cooperative federalism of water management, and reports some startling statistics:
In 2015, at least 3.9 million Americans were exposed to lead in their drinking water at legally unacceptable levels. An additional 18 million Americans are at risk because their water systems are not in compliance with federal rules designed to detect the presence and to ameliorate the impact of lead contamination. What’s more, in 82% of the cases where the violation related to a health standard, no formal state or federal enforcement action was taken.
The University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work has been doing some great work raising awareness of water issues. Their online program, Nursing@USC, has offered to post an excellent visual aid explaining the evolution of the Flint water crisis on this blog. Their infographic, and introduction to it, are below:
One year after the official announcement of elevated lead toxicity in Flint’s water supply, the city’s water is still not safe to drink. While Congress has yet to pass a bill to allocate funds, criminal charges have been filed against state officials and thousands of children have tested positive for toxic levels of lead exposure.
The impact on residents’ wellbeing is devastating—according to the World Health Organization, “the neurological and behavioral effects of lead are believed to be irreversible.” Interim solutions included drinking bottled water, purchasing filters and testing water at home, all of which required families to designate income toward fixing a crisis they could not afford. Roughly 40 percent of the city’s residents live under the poverty level, making it one of the poorest cities in the United States, struggling to pay for a resource that is considered by the U.N. to be a human right.
The crisis has yet to be resolved, just as other incidents of water toxicity have appeared in the District of Columbia, Indiana and Ohio. Clearly Flint is not the only vulnerable city, but the course of action exhibited the dangerous combination of environmental racism and lack of government oversight. The illustration below depicts the series of events that took place, which resulted in a catastrophic event from which lawmakers could learn.
This visual timeline was created by Nursing@USC, the online family nurse practitioner program at the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. The program prepares family nurse practitioners to treat physical and behavioral health, address social and environmental factors, and lead positive social change.
Image produced by Nursing@USC
