After 1,000 days, Flint is still without clean drinking water
Demonstrators protest over the contaminated water crisis outside of the venue where the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates’ debate was being held in Flint, Mich., on March 6, 2016.
January 16, 2017
By Caitlin Dickson
Thursday (January 20, 2017) marks exactly 1,000 days (click here) since clean drinking water last flowed from the faucets in Flint, Mich., where on April 24, 2014, state and local officials ceremoniously began supplying the city with improperly treated water from the Flint River.
Although the ensuing water crisis has long since faded from national headlines, for Flint residents, the ramifications of this disastrous, short-sighted attempt at cost saving are still very much a daily reality.
According to both both government officials and environmental researchers, there has been a steady decline in the overall levels of lead and other bacteria in Flint’s drinking water since it returned to Detroit’s system in October 2015. Still, the immense damage caused by pumping improperly treated river water through the city’s aged lead pipes is far from fixed.
Since March, the city has replaced lead service lines for just 780 homes in Flint. At a town hall meeting last week, officials estimated that it will take approximately three years to completely replace all of the city’s lead water-service lines — a project for which they have not yet secured funding....
Demonstrators protest over the contaminated water crisis outside of the venue where the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates’ debate was being held in Flint, Mich., on March 6, 2016.
