Just Women Magazine Summer 2016 | Page 7

Up South : The rise and fall of Flint

Crystal Coppage , 17 , of Vermont Christian Church ( Disciples of Christ ) in Flint , Michigan , helps her mom and dad prepare the church for worship each Saturday . It was a simple task before the city switched its water supply to the polluted Flint River more than two years ago . Now every drop of water they use — from hand washing , to mopping , to filling the baptistry — comes from a bottle .

An austerity move in April 2014 switching Flint from Detroit water to the Flint River , ostensibly designed to save strapped city coffers about two million dollars a year , has resulted in a water crisis of biblical proportion . Physical , psychological , and financial ramifications of the decision will haunt Flint for generations to come , officials agree .
ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE
With a population that is 57 percent African Americans ( compared to 13.2 percent nationally ), observers like Eugene James , Disciples regional minister , are blunt . “ Flint is a clear case of environmental racism ,” James said . Coined in the 1980s , the term refers to the disproportionate exposure of people of color to polluted air , water and soil — like the historically redlined

“ Flint is a clear case of environmental racism ."

neighborhoods all within walking distance of manufacturing plants and the water- , air- , and soil-borne pollutants they have left behind . ( See sidebar “ Up South .”)
This rust-belt city with a population of 99,000 is back-pedaling to restore a water system damaged by improperly treating corrosive pollutants from the Flint River that ultimately poisoned its citizens . Residents had no say in the matter . Unelected officials , appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder , made the switch in April 2014 to Flint River water , against local protests . Beyond furious , citizens are eager to clean up more than the water supply . They ’ ve already elected a new mayor . Concerned residents on hand to hear remarks by President Barak Obama , who visited in early May , booed comments from Michigan ’ s governor .
“ The Flint water crisis is a story of government failure , intransigence , unpreparedness , delay , inaction , and environmental injustice ,” says the Final Report of the Flint Water Advisory Task Force , issued in March 2016 . The governor-appointed , independent task force names failures at every turn by every level of government , including the governor ’ s
Up South : The rise and fall of Flint
A drive through the north side of Flint , Michigan , demonstrates the economic downturn of this once-vital rust-belt community . Boarded up windows and crumbling walls typify the structures that remain . Many have been removed entirely , leaving empty lots like missing teeth .
This part of the city stands as a blighted remnant of once-thriving African American neighborhoods . Workers — like the families who founded Vermont Christian Church — were recruited from sharecropping and underemployment in the South to make better money in factory jobs in cities like Flint , where the workforce had been depleted by two world wars . Here many bought their first homes ( albeit in redlined neighborhoods ) near the workplaces where they built the cars they would one day drive . But while income may have been better in Flint , racial relations saw no real improvement for the African Americans who had come from “ down south .”
“ They found themselves living ‘ up South ,’ with all the joys and pains that phrase implies ,” according to Beyond Fields and Factories : Black Relationships to Land and Place in Flint , a Black / Land Project report funded by the Ruth Mott Foundation in August 2012 . Arguably , a turning point came when workers unionized , gaining better wages , conditions , and benefits . But it didn ’ t last . “ Decades of urban sprawl ( as workers arrived and white flight to the suburbs ensued ), followed by 40 years of declining population ( as plants closed and took operations offshore ) has left Flint with thousands of abandoned homes , and not enough taxpayers to support city services spread over such a large geography ,” states the report .
Besides the economic blight , when manufacturers like General Motors left , they also left behind acres of abandoned concrete-covered property , enclosed by miles of cyclone fencing topped by barbed wire , all adjacent to the river . Rendered worse than useless , the violated land is saturated with pollutants , which leach into the Flint River watershed .
Moreover , Flint is not the only Flint . Other communities across the U . S ., populated disproportionately by low-income residents and people of color , are learning that their water sources also are tainted due to contaminants from manufacturing and agricultural activities and aging drinking water and wastewater infrastructure . See “ Water and Environmental Justice ,” written by Amy Vanderwarker in A Twenty-First Century U . S . Water Policy , 2012 .
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