Five years ago, the drinking water source for Flint, Mich., was switched, setting the stage for the city's water crisis.
In the years since, residents of the aging industrial city have seen their children's blood lead levels spike, government officials grudgingly admit mistakes and perhaps seen Flint begin to recover.
It's still common to see claims on social media that Flint still doesn't have clean water. However, tests have shown Flint's tap water has improved greatly since the depths of the water crisis. Now, it's well within federal and state standards for lead, even better than many other cities.
The outrage
The city's water problems all began with an optimistic toast.
"Here's to Flint," Mayor Dayne Walling said as he lifted a glass filled with tap water. Walling and other city and state officials were toasting the switch of the city's drinking water source from Detroit's water system to the Flint River.The switch was intended to save money, but instead cost the mayor his job.
At first, Flint's nearly 100,000 residents complained their tap water was undrinkable: cloudy, foul smelling and tasting of chemicals or worse. The system also suffered E. coli outbreaks. Eventually, the city acknowledged it was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. But government officials persisted in defending the water as safe to drink.
Outrage grew. Flint residents took to the streets to voice their anger. Chanting "Flint lives matter," the growing protests demanded the city return to Detroit water. After 18 months, government officials admitted the switch had been bungled. In October 2015, Flint was switched back to Detroit water.
It was only revealed after the city's drinking water was switched back that a Legionnaires' disease outbreak had killed at least a dozen people during the switch. There are conflicting scientific opinions as to whether the Flint River water was the source of the outbreak.
In the past few years, 15 city and state officials have been indicted for their actions related to the crisis. About half have cut plea deals. No one has gone to jail. And the remaining criminal cases are stalled as Michigan's new attorney general tries to decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, multiple civil lawsuits against state and federal agencies and private contractors are grinding their way through the courts.
Flint was left with thousands of damaged water pipes, families surviving on bottled water, and a battered self-image.
Later this year, the city hopes to inspect the last of nearly 30,000 pipes connecting homes to city water mains. Crews are replacing old lead and galvanized service lines with new copper pipes. But residents are still advised to use filters on their taps as the pipe replacements continue.
Federal and state funds are helping Flint fix its broken water system. And that in turn is attracting business investment.
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