Got Water?

Water makes up sixty-three percent of the human body — that's eight glasses a day; seven-thousand two-hundred forty-two glasses a year. With this amount of water consumption, it would not take long for contaminated water to start affecting the body.

The citizens of Flint, Michigan have drank water full of lead since August of 2014. This crisis has been declared a state of emergency since January 16, due to a series of medical emergencies that have hospitalized eighteen thousand Flint citizens. The river that runs by Flint itself [1] has been badly polluted since the 1970’s with fecal coliform bacteria or, to put it simply, chloroform. Knowledge of this contamination has kept Flint reliant on Lake Huron for clean water, giving yearly payments to Detroit's water department. The people of Michigan have paid Detroit for use of its water for the past fifty years that is until April of 2014 when Governor Rick Snyder refused to make payment to the Detroit Water and Sewage Department and instead made the executive decision to change water sources. A choice intended to save five million dollars over two years lead to the poisoning of Flint’s water supply — save General Motors, the only company that received drinking fresh water to maintain Flint’s collapsing economy.

Despite the massive amounts of chlorine that gives Flint water its murky brown coloring, the crisis has not yet been remedied because of the Michigan government's continual denial of the obvious contamination. Citizens of Flint persistently voiced their complaints as the pollution grew clear. Governor Snyder continued to insist that the water in Flint was safe to drink. Then, in 2015, a group of Virginia Tech researchers personally evaluated the water in Flint. The investigation showed just exactly how harmful Flint's water was. Michigan refused to confirm until Doctor Mona Hanna-Attisha provided records that showed a spike in the lead levels of toddler’s blood to deadly quantity (a fact that caused much panic and hysteria). It forced the state to finally admit the water was toxic.

Lead poisoning is irreversible; the community of Flint, Michigan has been drinking, bathing, and cooking in lead ridden water for nearly two years. Studies have shown that since the switch, the number of people who have contracted diseases has increased tenfold and there is more than just lead in that water…

Research shows that doctors still find more toxins in the blood work of Flint inhabitants. As of now, the people of Flint are lined up for bottled water because their regular water is unusable. This crisis could have been avoided had state government not been so cheap. Federal law requires that all water plants cleanse and seal lead pipes to keep the water clean and apply chemicals that clear lead for approximately 100 dollars each day for about three months. However, the state decided not to guarantee the health of thousands for a mere nine thousand dollars. This act of foolishness has not only brought light to the incompetence of the state government of Michigan, but has plunged Michigan into further economic downfall. It will now take an estimated 1.5 billion dollars to fix the pipes.

With all the controversy surrounding Flint's water, our own drinking sources have come under discussion. However, Worcester water is reliably clean. The system that brings us our water uses an elaborate series of machinery that works to keep the water drinkable. To confirm the cleanliness of Worcester's water, several sources were contacted like the Worcester’s Water Coordinator Kimberly Abraham who eagerly opted to discuss Worcester's drinkable water. Worcester's city council and school committee did not give a direct reply.