It’s a good thing I’m white. And not poor. I can turn on my faucet, fill my glass with water, drink it, and not have to worry that I’m downing a poisonous lead cocktail. The residents of Flint, Mich., don’t have it so good.
To save money two years ago, the city switched its drinking-water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Shortly after, people began complaining about all sorts of health problems, from rashes to hair loss to you name it. Government officials initially dismissed such concerns. After all, these were black impoverished people, so who cares? It’s not as if they were likely to vote Republican anyway, right? It’s not as if a Republican governor ought to care, or care that much, right? I’m not saying that what happened had to do with partisan politics; I’m just implying it. To spread blame more fairly, though, the Environmental Protection Agency initially found high levels of lead in Flint’s water in March 2015—but didn’t see a need to warn the public.
It took a full year before the state government finally revealed that, yes, Flint’s decrepit pipes were oozing a toxin that can cause neurological damage, especially in children. It would’ve taken a mere $100 a day to prevent contamination via a special additive, but I guess Flint’s residents weren’t worth that.
You know who’s worth a lot more? My neighbors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. If the water so much as turns brown for five minutes, the FBI and CIA launch investigations. Or something like that. You get what I’m saying.
I hope government officials will get it too. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform started to try to make sense of how local, state, and federal governments failed the residents of Flint. Officials are likely to focus on who made which decision. And certainly, there’s merit in playing the blame game.
But the larger problem is not that Flint’s water turned toxic. Mistakes happen, no matter how diligent the oversight. Rather, the main question is why it took so long to correct a mistake? I can’t help but think that race and wealth were not factors. Until officials recognize that, they’ll be searching for solutions to the wrong problems.
