Time Magazine 

February 1, 2016

By Josh Sanburn

Excerpts from article

High lead levels can lead to developmental problems and brain damage, and children under the age of 6 are considered especially vulnerable. Local cases of Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially deadly form of pneumonia, spiked after Flint switched its water supply. Ten of the 87 sickened people died, and health officials are now investigating a link between the outbreak and the river water. And though the city returned to Detroit’s water supply in October, the lead pipes remain so corroded that officials say the water is still unsafe to drink. A decision made to save money has crippled the city’s aging infrastructure and potentially poisoned of generation of kids.

Water from the Flint River has particularly high levels of chloride, a substance so corrosive that its presence in road salts leads cars to rust. Most municipalities, including Detroit, add a chemical to help offset this corrosion. Yet despite having eight times as much chloride in it than Detroit water, the Flint River water was not treated with a corrosion inhibitor. As the water passed through the city’s aging lead pipes, it absorbed the toxin into the supply.

In Michigan, the cities that are often under emergency management-like Detroit, Pontiac and Highland Park-have been predominately African American in a state that is only 14% black. This has led to allegations of racism-an ongoing federal lawsuit contends that the state’s emergency-management law violates the Voting Rights Act-and created the impression among many residents that if a lead outbreak had occurred in a more affluent and whiter city, the state would have responded with more urgency.