The inspector general recommended that the E.P.A. check on states every year to make sure they are in compliance with federal lead and copper rules, to pay special attention to Michigan, and to improve federal responsiveness to water contamination crises.

Acknowledging access to safe water as a basic human right, the proposed law strives to increase the safety and monitoring of water for all residents, with financial assistance for struggling municipalities.

“lingering household-level problems, the persistence of certain unexplained health symptoms, and their broken trust” in governmental officials who maintain their water.

“suggest a $520 million to $559 million loss of value to a large portion of Flint’s housing stock.”

“the Flint community to become an example of a community that can bounce back and be resilient from future public health emergencies.”

“suggests considerable psychological consequences to Flint residents, exacerbated by mistrust in officials and financial difficulties.”

“Disadvantaged communities are more likely to be vulnerable to adverse mental health outcomes especially after a disaster and have more barriers to treatment. Therefore, the mental health of Flint residents is of particular concern….as has been seen in other post-disaster communities.”

“it is still too early to conclude whether the effects are mainly due to lead contamination or proximity to polluted pipes.”

In some areas, the blood lead levels in children had tripled after Flint’s water source was switched to the Flint River.

“significant risk factors for EBLLs.”

“Children living in neighborhoods of the lowest quartile of household income and the highest quartile of poverty and old housing were more likely to have EBLLs.”

“decreased intelligence quotient, damaged nervous system, developmental delays, and neurobehavioral deficits.”

Jake May curated a project called “Still Standing: Flint Residents Tell Their Stories about Living with Poisoned Water” that includes the experiences of 100 Flint residents.

“...certain places, polluted through the slow violence of environmental denigrations, are rendered death worlds”.

“a highly racialized dimension”.

“a slower, stealthier, and less obvious form of brutality” than an intense visible attack.

“...a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all”.

“processes and practices by which [underserved citizens] are being constituted as abject citizens of the city”.

“abjection is a dialectical process produced out of deeply situated discursive relationships and material practices, where difference is constantly reproduced, enacted and foregrounded between people that have deep overlapping social histories”.

“it is a social and political process through which particular populations are pushed beyond the biopolitical care of the state or other institutions”.

“tenuous and contentious infrastructural connections between the government and the governed”.

“Infrastructure shapes how people relate to the city and to each other, affecting where and how people and things move across time and space. At the same time, infrastructure is also completely caught up within the workings of social, cultural, economic and political arrangements, structures and technologies”.

At that time, a concerted effort among officials and volunteers identified homes with lead water lines and conducted systematic lead testing as well as provided water filters and bottled water to the residents.

“residents were continually reassured by local, state, and federal officials that their water was safe for consumption”.

“The water utility did not have a corrosion-control plan…”

Still, officials did not implement adequate corrections for another few months.

Legionellosis, a form of pneumonia, attacks the lungs and can spread through infected drinking water.

In addition to those contaminants, during the summers of 2014 and 2015, 91 cases of Legionellosis were reported.

The trihalomethane content far exceeded levels allowed through the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, but they went unchecked by both federal and state governments for months.

These chemicals can cause many health problems, including cancer.

By the summer of 2014, water testing revealed higher than acceptable levels of E. Coli, trihalomethane concentrations, lead, and other harmful chemicals.

In particular, discoloration included a red tinge, which is associated with iron corrosion.

“Sufficient pilot testing and corrosion studies were not commissioned and completed… Furthermore, since the Flint plant had not been fully operational in almost 50 years, was understaffed, and some of the staff were undertrained, it is not surprising that it was difficult to achieve effective treatment.”

An emergency manager from the Michigan state government supported the switch.

in 1967 city officials began purchasing treated Lake Huron water through the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD).

“structural racism”.

“one of the most significant environmental contamination events in recent American history”