The Forgotten Plight of Flint 

In most online spaces, she goes by the handle “Little Miss Flint”. You’ve no doubt heard of her. Little Miss Flint, whose real name is Mari Copeny, is thirteen years old. For the last several years, she has tried tirelessly to raise awareness about what’s happening in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. It’s not a job that any child should have to do, but Little Miss Flint has devoted most of her pre-teen years to raising awareness about the lack of clean water in her hometown. 

Photo Credit: Pixabay

If it weren’t for her tireless efforts, people would be paying even less attention to Flint than they already are, and honestly, people still aren’t doing much. Sadly, after almost six years, it seems that Flint, Michigan may never have clean drinking water. 

The problem began in April of 2014, when the city of Flint decided to change its water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which was sourced from  Lake Detroit and Lake Huron, choosing to instead source their water from the nearby Flint River. Unfortunately, in their swiftness to switch sources and cut costs, officials did not apply corrosion inhibitors the pipes that carried the water to homes and businesses in Flint. Lead then leaked into the water, contaminating it with levels not safe for the average adult, much less the hundreds of thousands of children now exposed. People began to complain of discolored, foul smelling and bad-tasting water. In addition to the heavy metal neurotoxin now present in the drinking water of over a hundred thousand children, a couple of years later, a total of 87 people in the Flint area were diagnosed with Legionnaires Disease. 

Eventually the city of Flint made the decision to switch back to Detroit Water, but the damage was done. Residents still continued to notice odd smells and tastes in their water, which often had an orange tint to it. After testing was done, large amounts of lead were still detected in the water. Further testing showed more corroded pipes, and people began to demand action from Governor Rick Snyder and other government officials, as well as speaking out publicly to raise awareness, so that the rest of the country would know what Flint residents were dealing with. Governor Snyder eventually declared a state of emergency in Flint, shortly followed by President Obama, who declared a federal emergency and promised government aid to the city. Thanks in part to the efforts of young Little Miss Flint, plus the help of noted celebrities and public figures, donations of bottled water, as well as over a hundred thousand dollars have been donated to the people of Flint. However, even after six years have passed, Flint still does not have clean water that is safe to drink or bathe in, and government efforts to fix the problem have stalled out. It has been widely speculated that it’s a matter of racism and classism; that were it any other town that Flint, Michigan, with its low socio-economic status and large minority population, that the water would have been fixed long ago. 

Multiple inquiries at the federal, state and local levels have been started, a task force has been created, and countless officials have posed plans to try and fix the water in Flint, but so far all efforts have stalled. As of January of last year, a new Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has come into office and pledged to fix the water issues in Flint. However, the local government failed to meet a self-imposed deadline in July 2019 to have all the lines and pipes updated, with a mandated deadline of January 1, 2020 being the very last day in which it could be done. As of this writing, Flint has just applied for more time, as they claim they need to do more testing before they can complete these updates. 

What can be done? It seems that everyone involved is dropping the ball in some way or another, falling short of expectations, making excuses, denying culpability. Investigations from the federal, state and local levels have all failed. After a long six years of suffering, likely these residents have given up all hope. Through the exhaustive efforts of people like Little Miss Flint and other notable people speaking out, awareness of Flint’s troubles are high. And yet, the residents of the city are still begging for someone, anyone, to hear their plea and clean up the water. 

Learn more about what happened in Flint and find out how you can help.

This is a collaborative post.