Should Flint residents pay for lead-poisoned water?
Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau 7:42 p.m. EST January 11, 2016
635881321475051194-Amado-Saldana-Sr.jpgBuy Photo
Amado Saldana, Sr., receives a free water filter distributed Friday by the
Genesee County Sheriff's Department.(Photo: Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press)Buy
Photo
FLINT – Residents of the impoverished City of Flint pay some of the highest
water bills in Michigan. And those bills have not stopped coming or been reduced
since state and local officials acknowledged the water is unsafe to drink
without filtering.
That's wrong, says a growing chorus of residents and advocates.
They say the State of Michigan — which has
acknowledged significant responsibility
for the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, which began in April 2014
and continues to pose a health threat today — should be picking up some
or all of the tab.
Given the potential health and infrastructure implications of the Flint
drinking water crisis, the water bill issue could be small change in the big
picture.
But it's galling for residents who get big invoices for water they now know
they can't drink, and that — in some cases — they and their families consumed
before knowing it wasn't safe. Lead can cause permanent brain damage in
children.
Leon El-Alamin, executive director of the M.A.D.E. Institute in Flint, a
nonprofit organization that has been distributing clean water, said a reduction
of at least 50% in water bills is in order "until we get this thing resolved."
The Flint Journal reported in 2014 that the average water and sewer bill in
Flint was about $140 a month. High charges from the Detroit Water and Sewerage
Department were cited as the primary reason the Flint City Council voted 7-1 in
2013 to split with Detroit in favor of a new pipeline being built to Lake
Huron, the Karegnondi Water Authority.
Former Mayor Dayne Walling was quoted at the time of the vote as saying the
city planned to keep getting its drinking water from Detroit until the new
pipeline
was built. But records show the
decision to use the Flint River as an interim source
was made while the city was under the control of state-appointed emergency
manager Edward Kurtz and that the actual switch occurred while Flint was
governed
by his successor as emergency manager, Darnell Earley.
Earley is now emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools.
State officials have acknowledged that lead got into the drinking water because
the state Department of Environmental Quality failed to require the addition
of corrosion-control chemicals to the Flint River water, which caused lead to
leach into the water from pipes and fixtures. Flint switched back to Detroit
for its water in October, but a potential health hazard continues because of
damage to the water-distribution infrastructure.
City water officials could not be reached for comment Monday.
Gov. Rick Snyder, asked about the billing issue at a Monday news conference in
Flint, wouldn't comment on the issue. "I'm not going to speculate" about
Flint water billing issues, he said.
Flint resident Amado Saldana Sr. said he has had his water shut off twice but
scraped together hundreds of dollars to get the service reconnected both times.
He said he feels a refund is in order.
"I would pay the bill, and it wasn't even 30 days after I paid it that I got
another shut-off notice in the mail," said Saldana, 62, a retired GM worker
who lives north of downtown with his two dogs.
Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, said Flint residents
shouldn't be charged anything for drinking water for the entire time the Flint
River was used as a source. That's particularly true, she said, because records
obtained by the ACLU show state DEQ officials
may have manipulated water-testing data
to show the water was safe to drink when it wasn't.
"All arrears should be cleared," Moss said Monday. "Nobody should have to pay
for any of this." Asked who should pick up the cost of the water, Moss said:
"That's something the city is going to have to work out with the state."
Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said his city water bill for him,
his wife and infant child is about $150 a month, Most residents there can't
afford such charges, even for drinkable water, he said.
Ananich said he doesn't want to suggest people shouldn't pay their water bills,
but since the state was at fault, the state should look at addressing the
issue.
Val Washington, a Flint attorney who since 2014 has been in litigation with the
city over unlawful billings and water shut-offs, said the city for years
used water bills to subsidize city operations, instead of keeping the money in
a separate fund used for the water system.
Records show a Genesee County Circuit Court judge in August ordered the city to
remove unlawful charges, and Washington said the city has been found in
contempt, in part because it hasn't made the required reductions to water
charges.
On the water bills, compensation for health problems due to lead poisoning and
fixing damaged city infrastructure, "the people who made the problem need
to come in and fix it," Washington said.
Contact Paul Egan:517-372-8660, pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or on Twitter @paulegan4
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Source:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/01/11/should-flint-residents-pay-lead-poisoned-water/78643368/
