With the inauguration of President Trump behind us, with all of his executive orders and appointees underway, I wonder how many remember that water crisis that happened in Flint. Whatever happened to that? There were protest posters, rants, droves of aid deliveries, and commentators were up in arms. And then, it disappeared.
The lead crisis in Flint didn’t just pop up; it happened when state officials took over the finances of Flint after an audit foreshadowed a deficit. They thought they had found a way to save some money by changing the water source of the city from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which had been the city’s water source decades before. The city stopped sourcing water from the Flint River in the ’80s because of poor water quality. In 2001 after a class-action lawsuit, the state was ordered to clean up contaminated sites in the Flint River watershed; however, officials didn’t comply with treating the water with an anti-corrosive, and the lead from corroded pipes leached into the domestic water supply.
America’s children are the most harmed by lead, especially its children of color. According to the CDC, all it takes for a child to experience convulsions, hearing loss, behavioral problems, IQ loss or a coma would be to ingest a few flakes of lead in water or chips of lead-based paint or as much lead dust as would cover the top of a thumbnail.
Flint has traditionally been largely populated by people of color. To date, it is 57 percent Black with 42 percent of its residents below the poverty line.
Even though it has dissolved from media headlines, this crisis is far from over. There are hundreds of communities all over the country that could be the next “Flint crisis.”
Indiana isn’t immune to this threat, as was seen with a Black family living in East Chicago, Indiana. The news that the soil surrounding their home was contaminated was received heavily. They lived in a housing complex that sat on a Superfund site, meaning it is contaminated by a dangerous substance and poses health risks, according to the EPA. Their housing complex was built on top of the Anaconda White Lead Company and is situated south of two sites that dealt with or processed lead for decades. Why wasn’t this information shared before their lease was signed?
While lead is naturally occurring in the earth, it finding its way as a toxin to humans was tremendously expedited by the Industrial Revolution. Regardless of its known hazard during the 20th century, it was heavily used as filler for gasoline. This tricky toxin was riding shotgun across the country polluting the air and soil until its ban in the 1980s. Further, it was used as an additive in household paint until being banned in 1978. Lead paint still lingers in many homes and apartments in the United States. Particularly vulnerable are Black and Latino communities in lower-income neighborhoods with turn-of-the-century dwellings that haven’t completely been brought up to code.
A 1999 Institute of Medicine study identified higher rates of exposure to pollution for people of color in low-income communities than the rest of the nation. Dr. Robert Bullard, environmental sociologist and professor of Urban Planning and Environment Policy at Texas Southern University, stated that there is a correlation that displays environmental racism. He states in a lecture, “A study done at the University of Minnesota found that people of color breathe 38 percent more pollution than whites. … We are getting more than our fair share of pollution.” To spike this toxic cocktail even further, marginalized communities are also threatened with other industrial toxins like mercury, asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls (better known as PCBs).
The newly appointed EPA director, and former Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt has adamantly denied environmental issues like climate change, advocated for the coal industry and, under a president who has been quoted saying “We are going to get rid of (the EPA) in almost every form,” one should question how stable the gains made under President Obama to improve environmental issues will be, whilst also demanding attention be paid to the scores of other susceptible communities stewing in highly polluted areas. During Trump’s first few days in office, the Environmental Protection Agency took some heavy punches. He ordered a freeze on all new contracts and grants from the EPA alongside instituting a media blackout within the agency, meaning absolutely no press releases, blog posts or social media engagement. Not to take a position of dudgeon, but WTF?
When communities don’t have forthright protection from the agencies established to do just that, the onus is transferred and justice and equity must be sought alternatively.
Everyone deserves the right to clean air and water and a nonhazardous living environment. A petition for anything less is unconscionable.
