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Not Safe to Drink

Here's what you're asking about the Flint water crisis

By • Jan 29, 2016

On Thursday, Michigan Radio's Lindsey Smith took to Twitter with Reveal to answer your questions about the Flint water crisis. 

If you missed the Q&A with Smith, who produced the documentary Not Safe to Drink, catch up here: 

TIMELINE: Here's how the Flint water crisis unfolded

By , & & Lindsey Scullen • Dec 21, 2015
The Flint River and the Flint water treatment plant.
Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio

The Environmental Protection Agency launched a federal audit -- Governor Rick Snyder appointed a panel to look into it -- and there is a federal class action lawsuit underway.

Everyone wants to know how the water went bad in one of Michigan's biggest cities.

Reporter’s notebook: Some state officials still in denial or misinformed over Flint River decision

By • Dec 17, 2015
On April 25, 2014, Flint officials toasted each other as they flipped the switch to the Flint River.
WNEM-TV

I don’t blame the governor’s press secretary for not understanding exactly who made the decision to have Flint pump its drinking water from the Flint River. It was a complicated decision making process with multiple key players that lasted at least a few months.

Back in the spring of 2013, when this decision was made, Governor Rick Snyder’s press secretary, Dave Murray, was one of “us”; a journalist working for The Grand Rapids Press/MLive.

VIDEO: One family's take on life in Flint with bad tap water

By Paula Friedrich • Dec 17, 2015
The MacIntyre family took photos of how Flint's water crisis affected their day to day lives. From left: Sean, Ian, Laura, Evan and Broghan.
Paula Friedrich / Michigan Radio

As Flint's water crisis unfolded, there was a lot of news about decisions made by top level officials.

After ignoring and trying to discredit people in Flint, the state was forced to face the problem

By • Dec 16, 2015
The people of Flint protest the state and city's handling of the water crisis.
Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio

If you missed parts 1 or 2 of Not Safe to Drink, you can find them here.

Back in September, research scientists from Virginia Tech came to Flint to break some bad news.

Their tests showed high levels of lead in people’s tap water. Lead is especially harmful for young children.

Listen to "Not Safe to Drink," a special documentary about the Flint water crisis

By • Dec 16, 2015
Clockwise top left: Lee Anne Walters with her son Garrett, the Flint River, Marc Edwards, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha - Flint EMs Darnell Earley, Jerry Ambrose, Ed Kurtz, and Mike Brown. Center - water at the Flint Treatment Plant.
Steve Carmody, Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio

How people in Flint were stripped of a basic human need: safe drinking water

By • Dec 15, 2015
A Flint water meeting in January 2015.
Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio

If you missed part one of Not Safe to Drink, you can hear it here.

The tap water in Lee Anne Walters’ home in Flint was causing her family’s health problems. Tests show her water had extremely high lead levels. Her son Gavin was diagnosed with lead poisoning.

“How does this happen in the United States?” she asks. “I mean, you hear about it in third world countries, but how does this happen, specifically in a state that is surrounded by the Great Lakes?”

This mom helped uncover what was really going on with Flint’s water

By • Dec 14, 2015
Lee Anne Walters with her son Garrett outside of her home in Flint.
Sarah Hulett / Michigan Radio

Up until October, the Walters family lived in a yellow two-story home on the south side of Flint. A couple of red maple trees shade the tiny front yard.

Walters heads to the back of the house, in a small room off of the kitchen, where the family keeps its stockpile of bottled water.

“This is our water stash. Once a week we go and we fill 40 gallons of water, so we have water to drink with, to cook with, and to bathe Gavin and Garrett in,” says Lee Anne Walters.