Flint Forever Changed the Way America Thinks About Drinking Water

Replacing Flint’s Lead Pipes Expected to Be Complete by 2020

Five years ago on April 25, 2014, officials looking to save money switched Flint, Michigan’s drinking water supply, and then failed to treat the highly corrosive water properly, unleashing massive lead contamination of the city’s drinking water. The entire city of more than 100,000, including 9,000 children, was exposed to lead, a neurotoxin dangerous in any amount. The water crisis provided the nation and the world a glimpse into the frailty of aging water infrastructure in Flint and beyond.

“Flint forever changed the way America thinks about drinking water,” said Erik D. Olson, senior director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “There is a shared expectation that your tap water should be safe, but the experience of Flint residents unmasked the drinking water infrastructure crisis looming in many communities across the nation,” said Olson.

Read on here: https://on.nrdc.org/2vq3fa1