Catholic Community Responds as Flint Water Crisis Continues

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Vicky Schultz, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genessee counties in Flint, Mich., hands diapers and bottled water to Deborah Nettles Jan. 19. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said he has failed Flint residents but pledged to take new steps to fix the city's drinking water crisis, starting with committing millions in state funding. (CNS photo/Jim West)

Kevin Clarke | Jan 22 2016 - 3:35pm

In “a city that helped build America,” as Catholic Charities Of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties, puts it, “hope is often in short supply.

“Jobs are scarce—violence, illiteracy, and crime are on the rise. Young people are being raised in a an environment of poverty and despair. Foreclosures and anxiety, joblessness and poverty—all contributors to depression and domestic violence—are destroying families.”

As if these and many more problems were not enough, the city now confronts a water contamination crisis of mind-numbing dimensions. In a classic case of pennywise, pound foolish urban planning, a state-appointed city manager saved a few dollars by switching to the murky Flint River as the city’s main water source. That corrosive water has compromised lead piping all over the city, and residents have for months—cooking, cleaning, eating and bathing—exposed themselves and, more catastrophically, their children to the well-known neuro-toxin. Even low levels of lead exposure can have lifetime developmental and neurological effects on children exposed to it. Compounding the initial error to cease using Lake Huron water has been a failure at all levels of government to understand and respond to the crisis, in spite of repeated efforts among a few individuals in government and health services to bring attention to the unfolding unnatural disaster.

State officials report that all children who drank the city's water since April 2014 have been exposed to lead. In a statement released on Jan. 20, Lansing’s Bishop Earl Boyea, said, “The numbers are heartbreaking… That’s 8,657 children, based on Census data. And children are at greatest risk for health problems from lead poisoning because their smaller bodies, which are still growing, are more susceptible to absorbing and retaining lead.”

http://americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/catholic-community-responds-flint-water-crisis-continues