Detroit and Flint Water Struggles - Readings and Resources

7/25/2019 Detroit and Flint Water Struggles - Readings and Resources

1/46

TEACH-IN

ON DETROIT AND FLINTWATER CRISES

www.d-rem.org


2/46

"

This reader was developed by D-REM.

We encourage you to share it widely,

to discuss it with friends, family, and neighbors,

to affirm that water is a commons and a human right.

Printed January 2016


3/46

#

TEACH-IN ON DETROIT AND FLINT WATER CRISES

Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management (D-REM)

Readings and Resources

Saturday January 16, 2016

Readings for Detroit Water Struggle

Judge Calls Detroits Prosecution of Water Shutoff Protesters a Disaster

Last Vestige of Democracy

Emergency Mismanagement of Water

Statement on Water Affordability vs. Water Assistance

On Water Issues, its Detroit Versus the U.N.Statement on the Proposed Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA)

Water, Dispossession, and Resistance

Readings for Flint Water Struggle

Flint Efficiency

Some Common Misunderstandings of Flints Lead in Water Problem

When Did State Know Kids in Flint Were Lead Poisoned?Flint's State of Emergency is a Sign that Democracy is Working There Again

How Michigan's Emergency Management Law Poisoned Flint's Children

Flint Water and the No Blame Game

Flint Water Stories

Additional Resources for Detroit Water Struggle

Websites, Films, and Interviews

Additional Resources for Flint Water Struggle

Websites, Films, and Interviews


4/46

$

Judge Calls Detroits Prosecution of Water Shutoff Protesters a Disaster

Detroit Metro Times

By Curt Guyette, December 23, 2015

In the summer of 2014, as the city of Detroit was shutting off water to thousands ofhomes a week, a group of activists resorted to civil disobedience in an attempt todraw attention to the crisis.

They gathered before sunrise on East Grand Boulevard, outside a facility operated

by Homrich, the demolition/environmental contractor paid more than $5 million toconduct the shutoffs.

About 20 people marched, chanted, sang songs, and blocked the gate to thecompany's parking lot.

Detroit police were on the scene early and spent much of the day watching from

the sidelines. Finally, a blue police bus was called in to take away nine protesterswho essentially asked to be arrested in an attempt to put the issue of water shut-offs in front of a jury.

One protester was never charged with a crime, and another settled the case withoutgoing to trial. Now, more than 18 months later, the cases of the seven remaining

protesters each facing one misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct haveyet to be settled, with the Detroit Law Department dragging out the proceedingswith one legal maneuver after another.

In late November, the city's obstructionism hit a new low, according to attorneysrepresenting the protesters.

In documents filed with Wayne County Circuit Court, attorneys for the protesterscontend that city lawyers twice engaged in "unethical and illegal ex

parte"meetings with Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway.

(To ensure that due process rights are protected, both sides are supposed to bepresent during meetings with a judge; meetings where that doesn't happen arereferred to as "ex parte.")

At least twice during the prosecution of the Homrich protesters city attorneys met

with a judge without telling defense attorneys beforehand.

In court on Friday, Linda Fegins, an attorney for the city, denied any wrongdoingon the city's part.

But Judge Robert J. Colombo, chief judge of Wayne County Circuit Court, had a

decidedly different opinion, saying during a court proceeding Friday that the exparte meetings should not have occurred the way they did.


5/46

%

"That should never happen," he said. "Never."

Secret meetings

The first secret meeting occurred in November, just before seven of the protesterswere set to go to trial in front of 36th District Court Judge Garrett.

Two of the protesters longtime community activists Marian Kramer and theRev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann were supposed to have their cases heard by a jury.Another five defendants would participate in what is known as a "bench trial," with

the judge rendering a verdict. All seven were to be tried at the same time, in frontof the same judge.

The trial was set to begin Nov. 18.

One day prior to the start of that trial, however, attorneys for the city withoutinforming defense attorneys met with Hathaway and obtained an emergency

order stopping the bench trial over five protesters from going forward."At no time were any of the defense attorneys given any opportunity to be heard inopposition to this unethical and illegal ex parte motion for a stay of proceedings,"asserted defense attorneys in court documents.

Making the case for action

Although the bench trial of five protesters had been postponed, the jury trial ofKramer and Wylie-Kellermann (who represented himself) was allowed to proceedas scheduled. A jury was selected, opening statements made, and, over the course

of seven days, witnesses took the stand and testified.Prior to closing arguments on Nov. 30, attorneys for the city asked Judge Ruth AnnGarrett to declare a mistrial, claiming that the jury had wrongly been allowed tohear "highly inflammatory and unduly prejudicial testimony."

Essentially, the defense wanted to establish why the protesters took the actions thatthey did.

The city argued that allowing the jury to take those motivating factors intoconsideration was inappropriate. Garrett disagreed, and the trial was allowed to

proceed. Closing arguments were made.

An attorney for the city told jurors that the defense was, in essence, throwingeverything it could "against the wall" in an attempt to "see what would stick." Butnone of that, she argued, was relevant. There was only one simple andstraightforward fact the jury needed to consider: Did the defendants engage in an

act of disorderly conduct?


6/46

&

For his part, Wylie-Kellermann made a point of reiterating the prosecutor's point ofwho wasn't on trial.

The city of Detroit wasn't on trial, he noted. The Department of Water andSewerage wasn't on trial. The unelected emergency manager who ordered the mass

shut-offs wasn't on trial. The contractor being paid millions of dollars to shut offpeople's water wasn't on trial.

Speaking slowly and softly, appearing slightly disheveled in an inexpensive sports

coat, Wylie-Kellermann then delivered a line that summed up the essential pointthat propelled him and the other protesters to push the issue as far as they have:

"I'm on trial," he said, placing a hand to his chest. "Marian Kramer is on trial. AndI submit that, at this moment in history in Detroit, all of us are on trial."

In other words, it wasn't just a legal issue at stake. It was also a moral issue.

After Kramer's attorney, John Royal, made his closing argument, the jury waspoised to begin deliberations.

But they never got the chance.

Shortly before deliberations were set to begin, attorneys for the city informed thedefense and Garrett that Hathaway, as the result of another ex parte hearing which included the city's chief attorney, Melvin "Butch" Hollowell had issuedan order halting proceedings.

It was, defense attorneys now argue, an "unprecedented step" to halt a jury trial

while in progress in a case involving a "minor city ordinance violation."Or, as Kramer told reporters shortly after the deal went down, "The jury wasseated, and was ready to go in and do their job, and it was snatched from up underthem."

In a court appearance Friday, defense attorney Julie Hurwitz stated that, based ontranscripts of the second ex parte hearing, attorneys for the city "blatantlymisrepresented the truth" when they assured Hathaway that the defense had beengiven notification of the proceedings.

Jumping the rails

On Friday, after Hathaway refused a defense motion to remove himself fromfurther rulings in the case, the action moved to Colombo's courtroom. He agreedthat the ex parte hearings should never have been allowed to occur, but thatHathaway had done nothing to justify being removed from the case.

Declaring that the case "has gotten way off track," Colombo looked at where thingsstand and determined: "This is a disaster."


7/46

'

Members of the jury are still waiting to hear if they will ever be called back. Thefive defendants whose bench trial was postponed still have not been able to havetheir day in court. There are a host of issues that would have to be decided uponappeal for any of the trials to move forward.

All over a case involving seven peaceful protesters charged with the misdemeanoroffense of disorderly conduct.

Colombo's recommendation was a settlement conference which he offered to

preside over with the goal of having the city drop all charges.

The mindboggling bottom line, though, was articulated by Hurwitz in an interview:

"The fact that the city so threatened by these activists that its attorneys would go tosuch lengths, to the point where they would take actions that threaten their own

professional reputations, is quite astounding."

Last Vestige of Democracy

Thinking for Ourselves

By Shea Howell, December 5, 2015

The outcome of the trial against two of the defendants who blocked trucks fromshutting off water to Detroiters is unclear. In an unprecedented move, WayneCounty Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway intervened and halted the trial ofthe two of the Homrich 9 on the eve of closing arguments.

The trial had been going on for more than a week, providing a defense ofcivil disobedience before an all black jury in the 36th District Court Room ofJudge Ruth Ann Garret. Garret was the second judge to preside over the efforts to

bring this case to a jury. Defendants Bill Wiley-Kellerman and Marian Kramer had

fought for a jury trial, trusting that Detroiters would recognize that their actionswere justified.

In an opening statement to the jury the Reverend Bill Wiley Kellermanexplained, I and others have waited a long time to bring this case to you. Its nowgoing on a year and a half, but events are still vivid to us, because they were full of

meaning. When we were arraigned last summer, we asked immediately for a jury


8/46

(

trial. Back then, you may remember that every elected official in the City ofDetroit had been replaced by one man the Emergency Manager who had putthe city into bankruptcy. The elected school board had been replaced by emergencymanagement. Even the Library commission was under assault. So we were mindfulthat a jury of Detroiters represented the last remaining form of democracy in thecity. We were eager to put this case before you to vote on the matters of justice.

What I would ask of you in these days at hand: keep your eyes open; keep your

ears open, your hearts open, your conscience open. Look for the meaning and spiritof these events. If you do that I will gladly put myself in your hands. The move tohalt the jury trial was called unbelievable by defense attorney Julie Hurwitz. Sheargued that the citys strategy was orchestrated from the top decision- makersand from day one has been a political one, Hurwitz said. [They are] absolutelyand totally bound and determined not to allow the truth about whats going on withthese mass water shut-offs in this city to come to light. And thats what this trialdid.

Theyre taking advantage of their authority, and their relationship with the court, toabuse both the law and the court to their political ends. Peter Henning, an experton criminal procedure at Wayne State University agreed, calling the interventionquite uncommon, noting that it is aggressive and playing with fire.

It should be obvious that the city has no moral ground in this case. Mayor Duggan,

and his minions, cannot keep the truth away from the people. Water shut offs areeverywhere. On any given day close to 30,000 households are in danger of being

shut off. While nearly30, 000 people have entered into payment plans, less than300 have been able to keep up with them. Nearly 20,000 homes have beenpermanently shut off. The City is paying Homrich nearly 6 million dollars to shutpeople off, while assistance programs have run out of money.

All of this pain could have been avoided. The Mayor could use his energy to backa Water Affordability Plan, approved by the City Council a decade ago.

Defendant Marian Kramer noted the irony of the city criminally prosecuting peoplefor nonviolent defense of Detroiters right to water. The true crime is thatthousands of people who are struggling to pay their water bills are being deprived

of a basic necessity of life. Instead of implementing the Water Affordability Plan,which would tie water rates to income and which Detroit City Council supports,

the Mayor chooses to shut off the water of thousands of Detroiters. Who is the realcriminal?

Mayor Duggan is not only violating the basic human right to water. He is violatingthe inalienable human right to a public trial by people of conscience. So much forthe last vestige of democracy.


9/46

)

Emergency Mismanagement of Water

Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management

By Frank X Murphy, November 21, 2015

Efforts continue by white elites in the Detroit suburbs to monetize theinfrastructure of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), into thenew regional Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). This historic asset grabteaches us a lot about what such misleaders really mean by fancy words like

regionalism, affordable water rates, privatization and even democracy.

An Internet Media Discussion

For example, on November 16, as part of a recent series of one-year-afterretrospectives on the historic Detroit municipal bankruptcy, journalist Sara Cwiek

posted an article about GLWA on Detroit public radios web site.

The piece began by positively describing the water takeover from the perspectiveof suburban policy makers. It also briefly raised a few important questions.

Ms. Cwiek acknowledged that critics (including the United Nations) have harshlydenounced mass water shut offs initiated under Detroits emergency manager in2014 against many of Detroits poorest residents, as inhumane and ham-fisted,while being meant to reassure wary bondholders. Significantly, and perhaps forthe first time in such a mainstream corporate media report, Ms. Cwiek admitted thenearly total failure of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggans much-touted but

unaffordable water assistance plans for poor residents: After 9 months of the

mass shutoffs, just 300 of the nearly 25,000 people put on payment plans were ableto keep up.

This opportunity to participate in the kind of robust public discussion thatsupposedly characterizes a free society (whether we can all afford water in it ornot) led this writer and a few others to post comments. One comment invitedreaders to attend a special showing of Kate Levys film Detroit Minds Dying, tolearn more about the theft of the water department and this duplicitous steptowards privatization of the entire regions water source.

Thats where one of the regions key leaders of our new water order weighed in,revealing the profound contempt he and his associates have for ordinary Detroitersstruggling with the brutal conditions of austerity imposed by the emergency-managed bankruptcy on the city and its People. An almost immediate reply to the

comment inviting readers to attend the movie came from Craig Covey.

Mr. Covey is a top assistant to the Oakland County water resources commissioner,and thus one of the key officials with a direct stake in the GLWA smash-and-


10/46

*

grab. He pleads not guilty: There have been no moves toward privatization of theregions water supply, Mr. Covey claimed. He described the GLWA as A Win,Win for both city and suburbs, because the GLWA is at some future timesupposed to start paying the city $50 million per year to lease the whole regionsvital water and sewer infrastructure.

Suburban leaders rarely miss a chance to frame such political economic issues ofDetroit with bad odor, even after the city: a) provided them with clean water at

reasonable rates for many decades, and b) recently agreed to regionalize thesystem at bargain basement prices. In this white supremacist tradition of regionalcooperation as structured by the suburbs, Mr. Covey concluded with a typicalkick in the urban nuts; he alleged that with white People in charge we can getaway from the corruption and mismanagement of the past 40 years.

A Smoking Gun Financial Memo

What Mr. Covey and his suburban cohorts mean when they describe theiropportunistic moves as yielding a win/win is clarified by a very recentmemorandum, dated November 12, 2015, authored by the Chief Financial Officerof DWSD and GLWA, Nicolette Bateson. Her brief 2-page report to the DWSD

board regarding the status of GLWA is a masterpiece of Orwellian language. Itsummarizes the relatively positive outlook for GLWA on Wall Street (whereeverybody knows there is absolutely no corruption and mismanagement

whatsoever).

In summarizing GLWAs attractive financial prospects, Ms. Bateson

acknowledges what the win/win really means for People who need water to livein metro Detroit. For suburbanites, rates are considered affordable.

People in the city, however, do not enjoy such a clear win. There is significanteconomic stress in Detroit, which could place downward pressure on utilitycollection rates within the city (Heaven forefend!)

[B]ased on the significantly lower income indicators for Detroit, the wholesalerates are considered significantly less affordable when compared to suburbanresidents (emphasis added)

By significantly less affordable Ms. Bateson means that in Detroit water isunaffordable for many People. Its as if, in order to say someone is dead, onetactfully referred to them as significantly less alive.

Lets Review!

These recent communications teach that, for metro Detroits suburban leaders:


11/46

"+

1. Any attempt to publicly offer a critical perspective on the bankruptcy-arrangedwhite takeover of Detroits water system must be immediately attacked anddenied. Because of historic corruption and mismanagement that is the only thingyou need to know about black Detroit, no bias of white elites can be admitted todetermine policy outcomes, by definition;

2. Water is affordable in the mostly white suburbs, and unaffordable in theoverwhelmingly black city this is known as a win/win. There is no earthly

reason to be concerned about the disparity at all;

3. The only significance this significantly less equitable reality has forGLWAs benevolent and far-seeing leadership is that it may threaten to underminetheir credit rating with Wall Street bondholders and banks. Certainly the fact thatfar too many Detroiters lack reliable access to water and have suffered violation oftheir basic human rights by mass water shut offs is of significantly less interest,

that is none at all; and4. This unquestioned fundamentalist belief in corporate bottom line criteria, asthe sole basis for evaluating the functioning of a water utility is not in any sense aform of privatization. (See Optimize This! Water, Leadership, Human RightsAnd Public Health)

Detroiters know from long experience that there is significantly less truth instatements by white corporate leaders about the human rights of working class

People of color, or their communities prospects for democracy, regional equity,and access to the necessities of life. The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is

a case in point.

Statement on Water Affordability vs. Water Assistance


April 28, 2015

Metro Detroit needs affordable and accessible water and sewage rates and

payment plans for vulnerable populations based on income.

Over several weeks of participation on the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA)

Water Residential Assistance Program (WRAP) committee meetings, we have


12/46

""

arrived at several conclusions about this process and its outcomes on water accessand affordability for low-income customers:

The GLWA WRAP is designed to fail. It is a very underfunded program intendedto serve a larger population of customers than current, failing DWSD assistance

programs. WRAP is based on temporary solutions to long-term problems and,therefore, will not deliver on customer self-sufficiency measures and regular

payment requirements.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) has operated for decadeswithout a basic understanding of how its municipal customers operate and assisttheir retail customers (including affordability concerns), thereby contributing tocurrent GLWA WRAP design challenges and flaws.

Background on solutions based on affordability and legal challenges.

In 2005, in response to tens of thousands of annual water service shut offs inDetroit, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) and utilities expertRoger Colton drafted a Water Affordability Program (WAP), to address the issueof providing water for low income customers unable to afford DWSD water andsewage rates. The WAP calls for an affordable rate structure, based on individualhouseholds income and ability to pay.

The Detroit City Council passed a resolution in 2006 in support of DWSDadopting the WAP. Unfortunately, DWSD never adopted the proactive

affordability model of the WAP as specified. Instead, it implemented a modifiedand unsupported plan termed the Detroit Residential Water Assistance Plan(DRWAP).

DRWAP was based on a different, reactive model of assistance for the low-incomecustomers. Limited to the City of Detroit, it earmarked funds to subsidizerepayment of overdue bills after customers fell behind and into shut offstatus. DRWAP operated ineffectively and with inadequate funding for a fewyears before the program collapsed.

In the 10 years since WAP report was introduced there hasnt been a singlepublicly released DWSD study, analysis or report that provides basic data needed

to support or refute this fundamental policy choice. Instead, speculation andsuspicion of unfounded legal restrictions have been supplanted for data and facts.

Multiple studies and reports on affordability programs clearly outline the strengths

and benefits of this approach over assistance programs. The National ConsumerLaw Councils (NCLR) extensive March 2014 report entitled,Review and

Recommendations for Implementing Water and Wastewater Affordability

Programs in the United States, states that An affordability analysis should also


13/46

"#

focus on customer ability to pay. Similarly, a 2010 Water Research Foundationjointly funded a report with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)called,Best Practices in Customer Payment Assistance Programs, noted: Anothersignificant dimension of the problem of nonpayment relates squarely to publichealth the very heart of a water utilitys mission. Note: The EPA recommendsa threshold of no more than 2.5% of median household income be spent on waterand wastewater.

On the interpretation of laws to allow for water affordability plans, NCLR offersinsightful conclusions:

Throughout the United States, regulatory bodies and water agencies haverepeatedly viewed any program that might subsidize one ratepayer class at theexpense of another as potentially violating the anti-discriminatory rate provisionsfound in their respective state statutes. And while some jurisdictions have more

broadly interpreted anti-discriminatory statutes, which facilitate the developmentof ratepayer assistance programs, the fact remains that absent specific legislativeauthorization, some affordability programs might be precariously positioned to

pass judicial scrutiny. Some states have relaxed their interpretations of existingstatutes to allow for rate relief in disadvantaged communities under certaincircumstances. Flexibility to deviate from the strict application of district specific

pricing or single-tariff pricing should be an option when reasonably necessary,

based on all relevant factors. Tracking expenses on a district specific level even inthe context of single-tariff pricing or rate consolidation may help to ensure thatcompanies are held accountable and incur only those costs that are

reasonable. Flexibility is also necessary to create effective payment plans that takeinto account the different circumstances of payment- troubled customers.

During GLWA WRAP meetings, it has been asserted that water affordabilityprograms based on income are illegal. In reviewing Michigan statutes, particularly,the Headlee Amendment (Art. IX, Sec. 31 of the Michigan Constitution,) and theMichigan Supreme Courts decision inBolt v Lansing,our legal team finds that theMWRO Water Affordability Program is not illegal. Headlee requires a vote of thePeople before raising a tax. Bolt held that when government charges a fee for aservice, it has to be only enough to pay for the cost of providing the service

(similar to the requirement of the above statute for DWSD), rather than a generalrevenue raising measure. The Water Affordability Plan would not violate Headlee

because it does not impose a tax.Boltshould not apply, in light of the abovestatute specifically targeting the DWSD system. Even if it did apply, the WaterAffordability Plan implemented by GLWA would not violateBoltfor the samereason it doesnt violate the statute.


14/46

"$

Finally, the State adopted in 2014 a comprehensive new funding program for theCity of Detroit in the legislation implementing the Grand Bargain. If the results ofthat reform indicate that people in Detroit are being denied the means of life,whether because of interpretations of the regional water system statute, HeadleeorBolt, then that plan has to be amended. Laws and the legal issues they raise haveto be taken account of but should not block actions necessary for public health and

justice.

Water shut offs, racial bias and international criticism.

DWSD has a pattern of mass shutoffs to low income customers that yield the sameconsequences and ineffective solutions. As in 2005, the 2014-2015 water shut offsdisproportionately affect the most vulnerable people living in poverty, e.g., personswith disabilities, single parents with children, elders living on fixed incomes andlow income residents of color.

Combined with severe economic challenges facing Detroit beginning in the 2008Great Recession, and throughout the 2013-2014 Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceeding,the pre-existing inability of many Detroit residents to pay water and sewer billsinevitably led to more mass water shut offs. In spring and summer 2014, up to3000 customers per week were threatened with shut off. Over 31,000 householdswere eventually shut off or nearly 100,000 residents equating to 1/6 of the

population.

Last years mass water shut offs were denounced by Detroit residents; internationaland national social justice and civil rights organizations; and United Nations

Special Rapporteurs who visited Detroit in October 2014 at the urging of ourorganizations. In meetings with residents and local officials, the human rightsexperts maintained that U.N. Resolution 64/292 of July 2010 declares,Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of meansconstitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international humanrights.

Local and regional officials have falsely argued that low income DWSD customersinsist on free water, do not want to pay their water and sewage bills, and need

behavior modification training on bill payment responsibility. These egregious

accusations would be better directed at DWSD officials and Board members whohave allowed millions of dollars in waste, fraud and debt to go without

demonstrable accountability by responsible parties.

Disconnection of water and wastewater service is tantamount to household evictionbecause the property is deemed uninhabitable, both legally and practically. Incommunities where the penalty for nonpayment is service disconnection, low-income families are forced to determine priorities on other health-related expenses


15/46


16/46

"&

As the GLWA is scheduled to commence operations on July 1, 2015, the $4.5million budget allocation representing .5% of DWSD annual revenue isinsufficient to meet the need for such wide-scale assistance throughout its ninecounty regional service area or in Detroit alone, for that matter.

WRAP is not only underfunded, it is inherently unsustainable and futile.Experience has shown us that most low-income DWSD customers have consistentaffordability problems. A household that has fallen behind on its water and

wastewater bills is highly likely to do so again and again. Assistance-based modelsignore systemic problems of poverty and limited incomes that lead to repeated shutoff crises. Moreover, recursive and punitive payment agreements, like thosedeveloped by DWSD officials, are destined to be breached and will not meet thegoals of the customers or water system.

Moreover, mass residential water shut offs involve substantial costs and

complications. The two-year contract with demolition contractor Homrich, Inc. toimplement hundreds of shut offs per day costs DWSD $5.2 million and has haddisastrous execution results.

Conclusion and recommendations.

Under these circumstances, we believe it would be better policy to refrain fromimplementing further residential water assistance programs, and to halt residentialwater shut offs while the cost and effects of the WAP plan are adequately studied,

analyzed and quantified. We find the choice between affordability- and assistance-based programs for providing water to low-income customers is driven by

ideology, not data in turn, causing human suffering upon children, seniorscitizens, the informed and people with disabilities, along with developing publichealth crises.

We strongly recommend that the GLWA Board and its government partners studykey empirical questions of how much an affordable rate structure would actuallycost those who can least afford current rates, bills and payment plans. Without this

basic economic analysis, WRAP may emerge as a failed policy choice that isunable to support the affordability needs of regional customers leading to moremass shut offs and a further weakened water system.

Additionally, GLWA should begin steps to review and adopt the aforementionedWater Affordability Plan, based on an equitable, sustainable and income-based rate

structure. Any legal questions should be immediately reviewed and clarified withwater expert attorneys.

As organizations that work directly with communities and customers in crisis, weknow that when water is not deemed a human right, thousands of poverty-stricken


17/46

"'

families in Southeast Michigan face the humanitarian catastrophe of threatenedshut offs each month. In the end we all continue to pay an economic and social costto pay for these services and infrastructure repairs because municipal watersystems are necessary public goods. The argument that some customers bear the

burden of higher costs when others are unable to pay as much puts forth a short-sighted and narrow ideology for sound, long-term management of our watersystem.

Its striking that current water shut offs and the denial of affordable paymentscontinue to be policy decisions led by politically-driven narratives that ostracizeand insult DWSD customers, who are poor. Local officials have acknowledged thatabout 1/3 of DWSD water is unmetered from leaks and running water inabandoned buildings. This cost is borne by all Detroit customers too.

DWSD and GLWA can and must avoid repeating last years massive assault on the

human rights and dignity of the most vulnerable members of our communities.After the pain and restructuring of the bankruptcy, our region was supposed to do

better. The world is watching to see if the Great Lakes Water Authority, DWSD,Mayor Duggan and regional and state partners in the GLWA will do the rightthing.

On Water Issues, its Detroit Versus the U.N.The Detroit News

By Monica Lewis-Patrick and Lila Cabbil, November 6, 2014

For the second time in recent months, the United Nations has looked at the fact thatthousands of Detroit families are without water and determined that there are

better, more humane solutions to the problem than those used by Detroits mayor.

A panel, which included two U.N. special rapporteurs, heard testimony on Oct. 19at a hearing with hundreds in attendance at Wayne County Community Colleges

Fort Street campus. Having implemented his 10-point plan to deal with watershutoffs, Mayor Mike Duggan rebuffed the U.N. panelists who took testimonyfrom Detroiters.

While the 10-point plan could be a starting point for negotiations (if the mayor

were up for negotiating with anyone on this issue) both the plan and his responsefail to recognize the reality the people of Detroit are facing.


18/46

"(

Detroit is Americas poorest big city, with 38 percent of residents living at orbelow the poverty line and an unemployment rate of 14.6 percent. The United Wayrecently released a report that shows two-thirds of Detroiters cant afford basicneeds like transportation, housing and health care, even when people in theirhouseholds are working full time. When you combine these dire numbers with theleaky pipes and bureaucratic foul-ups of the Detroit Water and SewerageDepartment, you have a recipe for injustice and disaster.

The U.N.s second condemnation of the massive water shutoffs is part of a chorusof public health advocates and officials that are demanding an alternative todepriving families of water. Those voices include National Nurses United,

professor John Powell, co-chairman of the Population Health Council, and Dr.Mouhanad Hammami, county health officer for the Wayne County Department ofPublic Health. Hammami and Powell wrote an open letter calling the shutoffs a

public health hazard and citing a double bind: People in poverty are already morelikely to be in poor health. Being deprived of water only increases health risks.

In plain terms, the only humane solution is to create a plan where people at acertain income threshold pay for water based on their income. This would keep thewater flowing to families that need it and the revenue flowing to a system thatrequires it. We would stop squeezing families struggling to make ends meet andinstead make sure corporations who clearly have the ability to pay are no longer

allowed to let their bills pile up without retribution.

We actually have a plan that was passed by the City Council in 2006. The Water

Affordability Plan guarantees water and revenue based on peoples ability to pay.But one thing needed to implement the plan has yet to occur in City Hall aparadigm shift. Recognizing how utterly crucial access to water is to families andembracing a practical plan to make sure families are never without it takes visionand courage.

It takes courage to acknowledge that youve been an accessory to devastatingentire neighborhoods, as one North End Detroit resident said at the U.N. hearing.There is no one there to help when blocks of people are without water. Seniors thatare housebound, renters who have to wait for landlords to turn the water back on,

and children who have no control of family finances are among the hardest hit. Buteveryone needs water. It may be hard for Mayor Duggan to hear and see the

devastation continue to get international attention, but thats not nearly as hard aslife for thousands of residents who cant afford the basics. The mayors plan needsto take that truth into account and adjust to fit the needs of the people, not the otherway around.


19/46

")

Statement on the Proposed Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA)


October 14, 2014

The future of Great Lakes water was decided behind closed doors. The bankruptcycourt ordered mediation among local political leaders. They developed a newregional Great Lakes Water Authority. This new organization, delivering waterand sewer service to more than 4 million people, does not protect the human right

to water, nor does it embody what it means to hold the Great Lakes, as a publictrust.

Detroits water and human rights crisis of broken pipes in the winter, mass shutoffs in the spring and summer, contamination of Lake Erie water downstream inJuly, and catastrophic flooding in August, illustrates the high stakes involved.

These crises are the result of years of federal oversight with no commitment tohuman rights, ecological principles or justice. As recently as 2011 Judge Sean Coxordered a partial regionalization. It is clearly not working well.

This recent history raises difficult questions: why should we believe that thecurrent GLWA regionalization proposal pushed by the same leaders, as a result ofa similar secret backroom process, will now succeed where they have so obviouslyfailed so far? Why would this new deal under the same guidance fix deep-seatedand longstanding institutionalized problems? The answer is that without genuine,

broad policy changes in favor of human rights and social justice, reinforced by

direct democratic control of this commons resource, it will not.The challenges facing our region can only be confronted and resolved by ensuringeconomic and social justice through equitable public funding for the regional waterand sewer system and its vital services, as well as sound environmentalmanagement. This is in keeping with the public trust doctrine and the human rightto water. These core public interest values and policy objectives must guide the

process and the GLWA going forward.

The Mayor has repeatedly evaded a commitment to human rights and to thedoctrine of public trust. He is more concerned with creating an illusion of control.

He says we have two systems one regional in the suburbs and one local in thecity. The truth is that we have one regional system of which the local infrastructureis an integral part. This misrepresentation does not inspire confidence; the two

systems are more accurately described as 1) fresh water; and 2) waste water.

For years Detroiters have borne a larger share of the burden for a regional system.Unless this fundamental, underlying dynamic changes dramatically, the GLWA


20/46

"*

mediated by Judge Cox will fail like, the 2011 partial regionalization ordered bythe same Judge did before it.

The Mayor has told the public that our water and sewer system is crumbling forone reason: We havent been spending the money to fix it. He hasnt explained

why.There are several reasons, including withdrawal of necessary financial support forDetroit by regional, state and federal officials, as well as a highly politicized and

racist obsession with preventing suburban ratepayers from having to pay their fairshare for the maintenance of the whole system. As Oakland County Executive L.Brooks Patterson told the New Yorker in unguarded remarks regarding the regionalwater system, Theyre not gonna talk me into being the good guy. Pick up yourshare? Ha, ha. Rather than address such deep seated attitudes, the new GLWAwill borrow more money, while promising to hold rate increases to no more than

4% annually. This has long been widely believed to be inadequate funding for thesystems critical needs.

If these underlying, unjust priorities dont change, the new GLWA will not be ableto end the recent nightmare of mass water shut offs. There are many critical,unanswered questions about the roles of Veolia, EMA and a possiblePublic/Private Partnership (P3), in the face of potential threatened privatization. Inthis connection, we are concerned that the Mayors stated objection to privatization

is substantially undercut by his admission that certain pieces of the system maybe privatized. What is he really saying, and even more important, doing? The lack

of transparency, or even coherence, in the publicly stated vision regarding suchimportant issues is deeply disturbing.

The Mayor has further stated that there have been no recent combined sewageoverflows or water pollution permit violations. In fact, there have been both including over 19 billion gallons of partially treated sewage and over 2 billiongallons of raw sewage. Success of the GLWA proposal requires more than happytalk. It requires facing facts. In the future, we hope that local, regional, state andother officials responsible for the regional system and its services will do this.Unfortunately they have not to date.

On June 25, three UN experts on the human rights to drinking water and sanitation,on adequate housing and on extreme poverty expressed concerns regarding water

shut-offs in Detroit. They stated Disconnection of water services because offailure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to

water and other international human rights. DWSDs recent brutal policy ofshutting off residents access to drinking water rightly drew the attention and the


21/46

#+

ire of the world to Detroits unjust emergency management regime and its abuse ofDetroiters, in disregard of law.

The GLWA water affordability program initially funded by $4.5 million, with .5%of budgeted revenue annually dedicated to its maintenance, is a welcome

change. Make no mistake. This is only because of the activism of Detroiters whodemanded it. Going forward we will be watching very closely to ensure that these

promises are kept.

Similarly, the regional systems current sewage costs are subject to an inequitablecost split: 83% to the city, but only 17% of the costs paid by the suburbs. Thisrequires extremely important and expensive, environmental regulation-mandatedCombined Sewer Overflow (CSO) improvements. Failure to redress this unfaircost burden under the GLWA would perpetuate an injustice that impairs theregional sewer systems ability to protect the Great Lakes, and may threaten the

fiscal stability of the GLWA.Mass water service shutoff policies implemented by DWSD in Detroit recentlycreated emotional and physical hardship for familiesincluding the children,elders and people with disabilities forced out of their homes to live withneighbors and family. The human and social cost of this aggressive, uncivil

process in the face of overwhelming unemployment and abject poverty created the potential for disease and medical injury that still exists. It puts

everyone the whole community at risk.

The GLWA has its work cut out for it in dealing with these risks. Transparency,

accountability and dedication to just and equitable governance and provision ofservices will be absolutely required to meet these challenges. Their blatantabsence in the emergency managed bankruptcy and restructuring process that

produced the GLWA is extremely disturbing.

The leadership of DWSD the Governor, the Emergency Manager and their lawfirm recently failed to display sound stewardship. Mass residential watershutoffs to thousands of Detroiters reinforced a narrow commercial and corporateagenda, and violated the human right to water and sanitation. DWSD attempted to

justify this blatant violation by describing it as a commercial success. That

insensitive and blind position was discredited around the world, in the bankruptcycourt and in our local community.

The Mayors statements that GLWA will remedy those violations with a fundedwater affordability program must be backed up by action, or the wholerestructuring and emergence from municipal bankruptcy will bethreatened. Indeed, the recent public claims that the GLWA was driven by watermain breaks, affordability concerns and the opportunity to create jobs repairing the


22/46

#"

infrastructure, when it is crystal clear that in reality it was forced by the court inorder to salvage the bankruptcy restructuring, insults our intelligence. We call forhonesty as well as competent public service and protection of the commons goingforward.

We demand that GLWA address the water crisis in Detroit through:1. Recognition of the human right to water and the public trust in the water of

Detroit.

2. Immediate cessation of the shutoffs and restoration of household waterconnections;

3. Implementation of the citys water affordability plan as originally proposedin 2005, beyond the limited version passed in modified form by CityCouncil and implemented by DWSD in 2006;

4.

Providing the public with full, timely and adequate information andaccountable oversight regarding the conversations taking place about thefuture of DWSD/GLWA; and

Authorities with responsibility for GLWAs future, and for our communitiespublic health, human rights, and public trust rights must step up to theirresponsibilities. All people in metro Detroit are entitled to equitable access toaffordable water, sanitation and sewer services.

The Detroit Water Struggle: A Story

Critical Moment

By Bill Wylie-Kellermann, September 30, 2014

Think of Charity Hicks as the Rosa Parks of the Detroit Water Struggle. She wasarrested in Detroit early on May 16 for resisting the shut off of her own water. The

private contractor came early in the morning, but she was up. Since he was hittinga bunch of people on her block she went door to door rousing people to say: Hescoming; fill your tub, fill pots and pans! Then, because Charity still had two moredays to settle her bill, she demanded to see the shut off order. He had none; only alist of addresses. When the altercation turned physical she called the police. Let it

be said that Charity was a forceful, even loud when required, black woman. Shehas a large persona. The white cops who arrived averred that she needed to be


23/46

##

taught a lesson and instead arrested her. They left her house open and threw herphone and keys on the front lawn. She was essentially disappeared.

Because of the situation in Detroit, arrestees are no longer taken to the precinct.They go directly to a Central Detention Center run by the State of Michigan in a

former prison within city boundaries. Still barefoot and bleeding she was put into aholding area with 30 other women. One toilet. No benches. Find a place on thefloor not covered with blood or vomit. Its the weekend so youll be arraigned by

video to a Court in Romulus.

When her husband returned home and saw the remains of the situation he begancalling local hospitals to try and find her. Eventually he went to the police stationto file a missing persons report. They said: We have her.

Visits and bond attempts were turned away. Because she is a diabetic and wasgoing into sugar shock, frantic lawyers were able to get her out on a habeas corpus

motion. But, truth be told, they had arrested the wrong person. Charity Hicks was afood, water, and environmental justice activist in Detroit. Strong and articulate. Awoman not to be messed with.

Two days later she told this story at St Peters Episcopal Church. She urged thegathered activists, in a now famous phrase, to wage love in the water struggle for

justice. The occasion was the presence of Nelson and Joyce Johnson, two faith-rooted activists from North Carolina. Nelson had been wounded by Klan members

in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre. Since then they have, among other things,founded the Beloved Community Center and shepherded the first Truth and

Reconciliation process on US soil. They were also instrumental in the recent MoralMondays campaign where week after week groups have been arrested at the StateHouse in Raleigh resisting to the right-wing assault to all social programs and

budgets. They were here to discuss the connections between the North Carolinaefforts and the struggle in Detroit against Emergency Management.

An Emergency Manager appointed by Governor Snyder (See Jan/Feb 2014) has allthe powers of government and more in his or her person: He or she can writeordinances, repeal laws, fire employees, set budgets, privatize departments, sellcity assets, break union contracts, re-write the city charter, and file for bankruptcy.

Or so we are told. The law justifying this was repealed in a ballot measure beMichigan citizens, but the lame-duck Republican legislature re-passed a worse

version within months. At this point every black city in the state is under theemergency manager law. Over half the black citizens of Michigan are under non-elected governments. Seventy-five percent of the black elected officials have beenreplaced by emergency managers. The Detroit Public Schools has had an


24/46

#$

Emergency Manager for five years and they have been successfully dismantled,privatized, and destroyed a la New Orleans.

Under the Emergency Manager the Detroit Water and Sewage Departmentannounced in March that it was beginning to shut off water to anyone more than

two months or $150 dollars behind in their bill. A hundred and twenty thousandhomes. They were shooting for something like 3,000 per week. A couple years

back, $500 million in bond money for infrastructure repairs had been turned over

to the banks to buy out the banks from predatory and illegal credit swaps intowhich the Department had entered. Now in the effort to privatize Detroit water,

poor people were going to have to pay up or be expelled. At the same time, thiscomported with the reorganizing of Detroit neighborhoods, resourcing some and

pulling the plug on others. People not expelled by mortgage and tax foreclosures,or by the disappearance of schools, precincts, and fire stations, could now be sent

packing by water shut-offs.

Neslon and Joyce thought something like this might be planned for North Carolinaas well. When Nelson heard Charitys story, he said: This is it. In the picture of achild or elder holding a cup at an empty faucet, all the connections can be made.He said this is the thing that can both deepen and broaden the Detroit movement.He drew a map of campaign on a paper plate. He was prophetic in every sense ofthe word. What he mapped and foresaw has come to be.

Within the week, Charity was at a conference planned by the Peoples WaterBoard in Detroit with Maude Barlowe, a Canadian writer and water activist who

had been instrumental in getting the United Nations to declare access to potablewater as a human right. When she heard Charitys story, she said: This is it. Weneed to file a complaint with the United Nations. Within weeks UNrepresentatives had announced that cutting off water to people because they wereunable to pay was indeed a violation of basic human rights. That got a lot ofinternational attention and soon local Detroit papers and TV stations were forced tocover the story themselves.

Charity had been invited to North Carolina to tell the story, but first she went toNew York City to speak about the crisis at the Left Forum. While waiting at a bus

stop, on her way to speak, she was hit by a car that jumped the curb and struck herdown. A hit and run. She was in a coma for weeks. In early July she crossed over

to God and the ancestors.

A group of religious leaders and allies began circulating a letter against the shut-offs and privatization and in support of the Peoples Affordability Plan of 2005which would set water prices according to ability to pay. Drawing from interfaithtradition they said water is a grace, a gift of the Creator, beneath everything. It is


25/46

#%

the lifeblood of the planet circulating in river and rain. As a gift of God it belongsto all creatures equally. In tradition it is part of the commons for which we arestewards. This view is represented legally in the idea that water is not a utility or acommodity, but a public trust, held for all the people. It is represented in the ideathat you cant own a body of water, even if you own the land around it. Any highschool kid knows if you are walking on the beach and someone tells you to get offtheir property, you step into the water and youre off. It is also represented in the

idea that water is a human rightit belongs accessibly to everyone. The faith letterwas signed by 5 bishops and 80 religious leaders in the city, plus many more in theregion and nationally. It was hand delivered to the Water Board, the Detroit CityCouncil and to the shut-off contractor.

Meanwhile people started protesting every Friday at the Detroit Water Board. Theycalled it Freedom Fridays, echoing the Moral Mondays movement in NorthCarolina. In the days that followed Charitys death a group of ten people decided totake direct action and block the trucks from going out to shut the water off. Theywent to the gates of Homrich Wrecking, the private contractor with a $5.6 millioncontract to turn off the water. The company is paid by the shut-off, so they areincentivized to do as many as they can, as fast as they can. We dedicated our actionto the memory and spirit of Charity Hicks. For two hours we blocked the gates. Ina very physical confrontation, we were arrested and taken to the Central Detention

Facility. So far, this was how Nelson Johnson had diagramed it on his paper plate.

The following week ten more people went back. This time we blocked the driveand stopped the trucks for 7 hours before being arrested. The same day downtown,

more than a thousand people marched from Cobo Hall to Bank of America to CityHall to Hart Plaza to protest the shut-offs. National Nurses United came forward tosupport the march and declare the situation in Detroit a public health crisis. Peoplecant cook, wash, or flush toilets when their water is s hut off. On top of thatsometimes they lose their children to Protective Services because the situation ismade unhealthy and unsafe.

In response We the People of Detroit set up a hotline for folks who have been shut-off to call (844-42WATER) and began to organize stations around the city to

provide emergency water and information. Our church, where the Workers

Kitchen resides, is one of them. On July 24 the council of Canadians, led byMaude Barlowe delivered 300 gallons of water to our water station in an act ofsolidarity. We stacked the water around our baptismal font at the back of thechurch and declared it a place of grace. A week later Keepers of the Mountain inWest Virginia (where a chemical spill had left an entire town without water)delivered 1100 gallons of water. Another, even larger shipment, is expected from aUAW local in Chicago. The support is growing.


26/46

#&

Hence, the Detroit Emergency Manager has a problem. The Federal Judge inDetroits Bankruptcy called in the Water Board to say, this has become an issue forthe bankruptcy trial it already was deeply embedded. Youre making the citylook bad. So the Water Board declared a two week moratorium on shut-offs.Whereafter the Emergency Manager announced that he was giving administrationof the Water Department over to Detroits mayor, Mike Duggan. Duggan is whiteand was elected in a landslide of write-in votes. He cant do anything the

Emergency Manager doesnt permit and they work closely together. Think of it asgood cop-bad cop. The mayor says things have been handled badly by theEmergency Manager, but now well do them right. He has a 10 point plan toextend the shut-off moratorium, give people time to pay up, hold someinformational events, and crack down on those stealing water.

There isnt anything in it about the $29 million owed by commercial and industrialaccounts, and not a word about the Water Affordability Plan. No one took Nelsons

paper plate and followed the design. Its all just happened in a very decentralizedand Spirit-led way. Charity Hicks walks among us and we are waging love. Asthis is written, the bankruptcy trial is scheduled to begin after Labor Day. Moreactions are being discerned. The story is not over yet.

Water, Dispossession, and Resistance

Thinking for Ourselves

By Shea Howell, June 10, 2014

Water is a basic human right. That was the strong message sent to the DetroitWorks/Detroit Future project during the environmental session held as part of theircommunity conversations. These are the orchestrated conversations that DetroitFuture claims give it legitimacy to reshape our city. The message that water is ahuman right was ignored. Neither the subsequent Strategic Framework norcurrent practices reflect this deeply held community value.

The failure of Detroit Future, the Blight Elimination Task Force, or any of ourelected officials to demand a moratorium on water shut offs reveals their

complicity in the effort to remove people from their homes. They do not challengethe takeover of our city by corporate powers.


27/46

#'

Lets be clear. These water shut offs are not about unpaid bills. This is aboutdispossession of the people. These shutoffs are intended to drive people from theirhomes. Water is the wedge. People are being targeted at the rate of 1500 to 3000homes a week.

One of the ways we know this is not about unpaid bills is the glaring contradictionbetween the treatment of homeowners and corporate clients. DPS, under itsemergency manger, owes $2.2 million in outstanding bills. Palmer Park Golf Club

owes $200,000, Joe Louis Arena/Red Wings Hockey owes $80,000 and Ford Field$55,000. The struggling city of Highland Park, also under emergency management,owes $17.4 million.

Last month, Flint severed its connection to DWSD. Under its Emergency Managerit is constructing a new pipeline, to be placed right next to the DWSD pipeline, toget water from Lake Huron, 65 miles away. The Karegnondi Water Authority was

established with the blessings of the State Legislature in 2010 to carry out thisunnecessary, quarter-billion-dollar project. It is a loss of $22 million for Detroit,annually.

Most likely the water shut offs would have happened quietly, except thataggressive action was required to convince suburban powers and privatespeculators that the Detroit Water System is a viable asset. Viability in this caserequired making a public show of shut offs. This aggressive action is a source of

money making for yet another corporation. The Board of Water Commissionershas signed a two year contract with Homrich, a favorite of Dan Gilbert, for $5.6

million to accelerate shut offs.The response on the part of the people has been swift. Community meetings arespringing up as homes, churches, and small businesses face shut offs. People areteaching each other how to turn water on. Some are parking cars over shut offvalves. Environmental activist Charity Hicks was arrested for having the audacityto ask that people be allowed to fill up water jugs before the turn off. Internationalwater rights activist Maud Barlow was in town and is taking a human rights chargeagainst the city to the United Nations. Clergy nationally are lending support to thiseffort.

These water shut offs are coming on the heels of a less publicized but equallyinhuman series of shut offs of heat and light. Between January and September of

2013 DTE and Consumer Energy disconnected 169,407 households. These shutoffs were before the worst winter on record.

For more than a decade community groups and thoughtful public officials havemoved the city toward policies and practices that assure access to the essentials oflife. Rates based on ability to pay, not usage, are the foundation of this shift.


28/46

#(

Programs like THAW have long held that access to protect people, public health,and safety is our primary value. In 2005 a more conscious City Council passedresolutions extending this principle to water.

The Emergency Manger and corporate powers are using water bills to accelerate

the dispossession of those who stand in the way of their plans for Detroit.Resistance to this is our right.

Flint Efficiency

Thinking for OurselvesBy Shea Howell, January 3, 2016

On the eve of the New Year, the Flint Water Advisory Task Force felt compelledto deliver a letter to Governor Snyder. It is a remarkably candid assessment of theGovernors failures, the crass attitude of his appointees, and the creation of aculture of disrespect and denial within government.

Thus far, the Governor does not seem to grasp the extraordinary damage he hasdone. His weak apology and appointments of a coordinator and public relationsexpert were met with immediate criticism. Political appointees and public

relations people are what got us into this mess, and they arent who we needleading us out of it, Flint State Senator Jim Ananich said. Anything less than a

professional trained in emergency management or public health will not suffice.

The latest letter to Snyder prompted the resignations of two top officials who failedin their responsibilities for protecting the public. Dan Wyant, the Director ofEnvironmental Quality (DEQ), whose agency was cited as primarily responsiblefor failing to ensure safe drinking water, resigned. This was followed by theresignation of the DEQ spokesman, Brad Wurfel.

Snyder said. I want the Flint community to know how very sorry I am that thishas happened. He continued, And I want all Michigan citizens to know that wewill learn from this experience, because Flint is not the only city that has an aginginfrastructure. I know many Flint citizens are angry and want more than anapology. Thats why Im taking the actions today to ensure a culture of openness

and trust.


29/46


30/46

#*

Some Common Misunderstandings of Flints Lead in Water Problem

Flint Water Study

By Siddartha Roy, December 28, 2015

Overall, the media has done a great job explaining the corrosion control problemsin Flint, providing simple but scientifically accurate explanationsbutmisunderstandings still arise here and there. Below we correct some of the mostcommon errors.

1) Myth: The lead in water is coming from the home plumbing of Flint consumers.

Fact: The worst water lead problems have been associated with city owned leadservice pipes. Some people have estimated that about half of Flints homes areserved by lead service lines, but in reality no one really knows how many pipes are

present or even where they are. Even if the entire city of Flint had lead free home

plumbing, there still would have been a serious lead in water problem.2) Myth: If the city of Flint, its consumers and schools had been investing andupgrading their infrastructure or their fixtures, they would not be having a leadin water problem.

Fact: It is so costly to completely replace plumbing infrastructure including:1) pure lead service pipes (often city owned),2) pipes with lead solder (legal and the standard until 1986),3) galvanized iron pipes (often contains lead), and

4) brass plumbing devices containing lead (standard until January 2014)

that very few consumers, cities and schools have upgraded their infrastructure ina manner that could have stopped this problem. If Federal laws that requirecorrosion control were violated, as they were in Flint, most major U.S. cities alsowould have had a very serious lead-in-water problem.

3) Myth: Flint residents got what they paid for or Flint could not afford totreat their water correctly.

Fact: MDEQs decision to not install corrosion control after switching to thecorrosive Flint River source, was a financial disaster that will eventually cost Flintconsumers and the City on the order of a hundred million dollars in damagedinfrastructure. Each $1 dollar invested in corrosion control typically saves $5-10 in

plumbing damage avoided, so it is a wise investment. For reasons to be discussedin a future column, the return on investment for corrosion control in Flint would

have been much, much higher. The failure to install corrosion control in Flint, wasthe financial equivalent of pulling the plug on a city that was already on lifesupport.


31/46

$+

4) Myth: Each city should be able to decide the quality of water they receive.,

Fact: There are Federal laws that set enforceable minimum standards that everycity must have, which includes a requirement for corrosion control and stringentmonitoring of lead. These laws should have been followed in Flint.

5) Myth: Flint has always met EPA Standards for lead in water.

Fact: MDEQ violated the letter and spirit of the Federal Lead and Copper Rule inat least 3 different ways in Flint each of which made it falsely appear that Flints

water was safe when it was not. On the heels of excellent reporting by ACLU-Michigan, the City of Flint itself acknowledges it did not sample enough of therequired homes with lead pipe. Simply put, Flint has not had a legal EPA waterlead sampling event since switching to Flint River (and possibly even before that).

6) Myth: Other cities in Michigan and throughout the U.S. have worse water leadproblems.

Fact: While there is little doubt that the 25 year old Federal lead law has loopholesand is not achieving its original intent, we are not aware of another city in the U.S.with a lead problem as bad as Flints (since the 2001-2006 Water Lead Crisis inWashington D.C.)

7) Myth: Lead in Flint water is now safe or is still unsafe.

Fact: No one really knows the current status of lead in Flints water supply. Wehave taken the position that until Flint actually passes a round of legitimate EPA

lead and copper rule monitoringit should be assumed unsafe for cooking or

drinking.

8) Myth: Lead in water is normally a minor source of lead in blood, orcontributes less than 20% of lead in blood.

Fact: The actual Federally mandated language states that water lead contributes20% or more to blood lead not 20% or less. It further states that for infantswith formula, lead in water can be almost the sole source to lead in blood.Interestingly, early this year we traced the genesis of misinformation that lead inwater contributes 20% or less to lead in blood (See Table 1). It actually allstarted with a typo in public education materials of a water utility, and then EPAstarted citing the language with the typo, and the erroneous language was attributedto EPA. In any case, when we brought the mistake to their attention, the utility andEPA finally corrected the 10+ years old error. The less than 20% urban legend

language was cited by CDC, utilities, EPA and public health departments, todownplay water lead dangers to children, and it was also cited by MDEQ lastweek.


32/46

$"

When Did State Know Kids in Flint Were Lead Poisoned?

Detroit Free Press

By Nancy Kaffer, December 17, 2015

When did the State of Michigan first learn that kids in Flint had been poisoned bylead in the city's drinking water?

This is one of the most critical questions to answer in the aftermath of a publichealth crisis that's still unfolding in one of the state's largest cities.

And it shouldn't be a hard question to answer.

But when I asked Gov. Rick Snyder this week, he said he couldn't recall.

Officials at the state department of health say they didn't know what washappening until a Flint pediatrician released her own analysis in September -- even

though data previously collected by the state showed the same trend, a reversal in adecades-long decline in the percentage of kids with lead in their blood.

And the health department has been stalling a Virginia Tech University researcherwho has been trying to get public records that could show who knew what, andwhen.

It's ridiculous. Immediately after Snyder acknowledged there was a problem inFlint, the Free Press editorial board encouraged him not to slow-walk the

postmortem. Snyder has appointed an after-action task force to find out whathappened, and he told the Free Press this week that he's waiting for that report to

provide answers to many of these questions -- but answers should certainly bereadily available for the man in charge of the state departments involved in thisfiasco.

So inconsistency and obfuscation continue.

Regardless of individual culpability, the water crisis in Flint has shown that thestate systems designed to ensure safe drinking water and healthy children tilttoward inertia: Despite mounds of data, despite understanding the consequences oflead exposure, Flint was allowed to pursue a reckless water treatment program withthe approval of everyone from the Flint City Council to the state Treasurer's Office

and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Flint switched its water supply in April 2014, drawing its drinking water from theFlint River while a new regional water system it plans to join next year is underconstruction. The local water treatment plant, with the approval of the Michigan

Department of Environmental Quality, failed to add chemicals to the river waterthat would have prevented lead in aging service lines from leaching into the water.


33/46

$#

All of these decisions were made with the approval of a series of emergencymanagers, appointed by Snyder to guide the city back to financial stability.

Within months, the amount of lead in Flint's drinking water soared. Lead poisoningis irreversible, and can cause behavioral and developmental problems in children.

After an initial six-month round of testing was complete in January, results showedthat the amount of lead in Flint's water was rising, although still within what stateofficials say they believed were federal safety guidelines. The U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency got involved; a memo written by an EPA water regulationsmanager found fault with both Flint's water treatment and MDEQ's water testing

protocol. But nothing happened. State officials continued to insist that Flint'sdrinking water was safe, even as internal documentation showed that it wasn't.

So, we know that state officials knew that lead in Flint's water was rising, monthsbefore officials publicly acknowledged what was happening. But when should the

state have known that the percentage of Flint kids with elevated blood-lead levelswas growing?

Virginia Tech's Marc Edwards, a MacArthur genius grant recipient who has testedwater samples from hundreds of Flint homes, submitted a request under the state'sFreedom of Information Act for documents related to elevated blood-lead levels inFlint kids to the state health department in early November. The departmentnotified him later that month that the documents he'd requested were ready. He

paid the state's tab, and waited. He's still waiting.

A health department lawyer wrote in an e-mail to Edwards that a "litigation hold"placed by state Attorney General Bill Schuette's office, because of a lawsuit filedby Flint residents alleging the state acted improperly when it switched to riverwater, meant she couldn't release the documents. But Schuette's office told a FreePress reporter that there was no "litigation hold" (a term Free Press lawyerHerschel Fink, who has decades of experience litigating the rules surrounding

public documents, said he'd never heard).

When Edwards informed the lawyer that the AG's office hadn't supported thenotion of a litigation hold, the health department lawyer said she needed to reviewthe documents to see if any were subject to attorney-client privilege. Again, Fink

looked askance at this explanation: Public documents don't become private bysimply virtue of being associated with a lawsuit.

Why is the health department stalling? I'm not sure, and it would be irresponsibleto speculate.

For months, state officials denied that the water in Flint had problems. In July,MDEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel told Michigan Radio that folks in Flint could


34/46

$$

"relax." In an internal e-mail, Wurfel wrote that community groups were keepingpeople in Flint "hopped up." When Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint pediatrician,released her analysis of Flint kids' blood-lead levels, the state's immediateresponse, across multiple departments, was to attempt to discredit herwork. Snyder's spokeswoman said the data used by Hanna-Attisha -- a pediatricianwith degrees in medicine and public health -- was "spliced and diced."

And the health department, in response to a Free Press request, sent over a batch of

blood-lead testing data that it said would refute Hanna-Attisha's conclusions. But astraightforward reading of the data showed that the state's own blood-lead testingdata confirmed the doctor's findings, Free Press data analyst Kristi Tanner found.Yet the state health department continued to deny that the spike in blood-leadlevels the doctor identified were anything but a seasonal anomaly. A week later,the health department reversed course, completely endorsing Hanna-Attisha'sfindings.

Health department spokeswoman Jennifer Eisner wrote in an e-mail: "We workclosely with our 45 local health departments across the state to provide publichealth services. Historically, a request would come to MDHHS from the localhealth department to conduct epidemiological analysis before our departmentwould have stepped in. As part of our after-action report, we continue to reviewhow we will conduct this process in the future."

But here's the thing: For months, state officials worked diligently, not toinvestigate the brewing public health crisis in Flint, but to discredit outside experts

presenting test results contrary to the state's assertions that everything was fine.And all that time, data that would have shown what was happening was ignored.

Why?

Flint's State of Emergency is a Sign that Democracy is Working There Again

The Guardian

By Curt Guyette, December 16, 2015

It might seem counterintuitive that Flint, Michigans declaration that there aredangerously high levels of lead in the citys drinking water and in the blood of

the citys children is a positive thing. The contamination of the citys drinkingwater is, after all, is a gut-wrenching tragedy.


35/46

$%

But the declarationabout the undrinkable water, made by newly elected mayorKaren Weaver on Monday, is positive in this regard: it is evidence that asemblance of democracy has returned to Flint.

Such an announcement would have been unimaginable even six months ago, when

Flint was still under the control of an emergency manager appointed byGovernor Rick Snyder. The states usurpation of local power essentially obliteratedthe kinds of checks and balances that are key to a functioning democracy.

Like a lot of Rust Belt cities, Flint the birthplace of General Motors has longbeen in decline. As auto plants closed and jobs moved elsewhere, the cityspopulation and tax base both plummeted. The result was an economic crisis that, in2011, led to the state stepping in and taking complete control of the city.

A series of emergency managers, accountable only to the governor who appointedthem, held near-dictatorial power over an impoverished city of 100,000 residents

a majority of whom are African America

Operating under the most extreme receivership law found anywhere in the UnitedStates, these emergency managers had the power to break collective bargainingagreements, abolish city ordinances, fire employees, sell off city assets, and slashthe healthcare benefits of retirees. About the only thing Snyders appointeescouldnt do was miss a bond payment.

In addition to everything else, these emergency managers held complete power

over the duly elected city council and mayor. The emergency manager told theseofficials what they could and couldnt do and determined how much, if anything,they would be paid. Any decisions the elected officials made could be overruled.

It was under this autocracy that Flint in April 2014 ended a 50-year relationshipwith the Detroit department of water and sewerage to begin drawing the citysdrinking water from the corrosive, polluted Flint river. The initial savings to thecity were pegged at $5m.

As soon as the changeover occurred though, it became apparent that the decisionwas a disastrous one. Residents began complaining of water that looked, smelledand tasted bad.

Because of high bacteria levels, a series of boil-water notices were issued. Thencame news of dangerously high levels of total trihalomethanes, a carcinogenic

byproduct of the chlorine being used in increased amounts to combat the bacteria

problems.

As early as February of this year, according to emails obtained through theFreedom of Information Act by the ACLU of Michigan, the US Environmental


36/46

$&

Protection Agency began raising concerns that the highly corrosive river water,along with everything else, was beginning to eat away at the pipes carrying waterto Flints 40,000 homes. And of particular concern to residents and the federalgovernment alike was the effect of the corrosive water on an untold number of leadservice lines and leaded home plumbing.

Despite mounting evidence that levels of lead in the citys drinking water wereincreasing, the state and the city officials under their control adamantly

maintained that the water was safe.

If not for a determined coalition of residents who refused to swallow those falseclaims in addition to the toxic water provided to them by the order of Snydersappointee, the full extent of the problem might never have come to light.

Instead of relying on the government, the residents teamed up with experts atVirginia Tech and the ACLU of Michigan (where I am employed as an

investigative reporter) to conduct their own independent tests, which clearlyshowed that lead levels in the water were a severe threat, especially to children and

pregnant women.

Even after the results of those tests were revealed, officials at Michigansdepartment of environmental quality (MDEQ) continued to insist that the waterwas safe.

But they were politically motivated to downplay any problem. The MDEQ, like the

emergency manager who made the decision to begin using the river as Flintswater source, is an appointee of the governor. What is the likelihood that onegubernatorial appointee is going to announce that a decision made by anothergubernatorial appointee is resulting in the widespread, systematic lead poisoning ofchildren?

It certainly didnt happen in Flint. Even after the city council voted earlier this yearto return to the Detroit system, the appointed emergency manager effectivelyvetoed the decision.

But then, in September, an independent study conducted by a Flint-area physicianshowed that the number of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood had

doubled following the switch to the river. Only after this study was published didGovernor Snyder and his MDEQ concede that the river water was the cause of thedisaster and allow the city to switch back to Detroits water system.

Flints fourth and final emergency manager left office in April. In November, thelong-time mayor who mouthed the states assurances that the water was safe wasvoted out of office because of his role in the water crisis.


37/46

$'

And so, the stage was set for a new mayor one not under the controlling thumb ofa state appointee to exercise her authority. Little wonder, then, that she started bydeclaring a state of emergency in an attempt to safeguard the people who electedher.

That, after all, is what democracy is supposed to look like.

The Costs of Suspended Democracy

The Detroit News

By Maureen Taylor, November 23, 2015

The recent crimes against public health in Flint, where people were forced to drinkcontaminated water so Gov. Rick Snyders emergency managers could savemoney, should prompt a serious reassessment of the costs of suspending localdemocracy and a system of checks and balances in the name of austerity.

The state uses emergency managers to take over local governments, to direct bothDetroits municipal bankruptcy and the ill-fated decision to draw chemicallyfouled water from the Flint River. In response to the Flint Water Crisis, EricScorsone, a popular emergency management expert at Michigan State University,

admitted theres greater risk under an emergency manager that decisions could betaken that sacrifice other important considerations to the bottom line.

But in virtually the next breath he said, I think its more about government leadersin general have to be careful when were in a cost-cutting mode you have to paythe bills, but you also have to ask yourself how far can you go before you start toendanger public health.

When officials routinely make decisions by asking, how far can you go beforeyou start to endanger public health, they admit their own moral bankruptcy.

Protecting people and our environment should begin with the question of how dowe improve the lives of our people, how do we ensure our natural resources for thefuture? The standard of how much can we cut before we destroy is obscene.Protecting the Great Lakes and the people who depend on them begins with the

precautionary principle to avoid harm. Snyder and his EMs have substituted a

recklessness principle: serve the bottom line even if it harms those they are electedto serve.


38/46

$(

Moreover, in the case of former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley, doingharm has done no harm to his work record as far as Snyder is concerned. Earley,after refusing to acknowledge what everyone could see floating in Flint drinkingwater, is now the EM for the Detroit Public Schools.

Earley, who had sole, unchecked power in Flint, said the water poisoning was nothis fault. In a truly remarkable statement, Earley denied that he as EM had ultimateauthority and final say over all city operations. In reality, Snyder appoints EMs to

usurp all elected officials in a given jurisdiction. Appointing an emergencymanager is an extreme expression of bad faith in voters and the democratic

process, an expression that Snyder has used primarily on African-American andLatino voters and communities across Michigan.

The fact that Earley is still in charge of DPS is all anyone needs to know about thestate of Michigans racist abuses. Blaming staff, Mayor Walling, the media,

rhetoric and anyone and everyone else is merely a ploy so that Earley doesnthave to take responsibility for the evil policy he implemented and Snydersupported. If the latest attempts to salvage DPS after two decades of destructivestate takeovers are to have any credibility whatsoever, the first step is clear Earley must go.

How Michigan's Emergency Management Law Poisoned Flint's Children

Alternet

By Robert C. Gibson, October 22, 2015

Flint may have finally reconnected to Detroits water infrastructure, but thedamage done to its population by the ill-advised connection to the Flint River isirreversible. If Michiganders are looking for someone to blame for the travesty inFlint, they need look no further than Governor Rick Snyder and the emergency

manager Snyder appointed who unilaterally made a decision that put thousands ofchildren and adults at serious risk.

Emergency Management Enforces Inequality

In 2011, one of the first actions of the Snyder administration and the Republican-

controlled Michigan legislature was to pass Public Act 4 (PA 4), whichstrengthened the states controversial emergency manager (EM) law. To clarify,


39/46

$)

the EM law effectively erases the sovereignty of local governments by installing astate-appointed autocrat whose decisions can override city councils and mayors.

But PA 4 went a step further by allowing EMs to dissolve hard-won collectivebargaining agreements between public sector unions and the state, cut pensions,

and unilaterally decide to privatize public assets. PA 4 was so unpopular that thestates unions successfully banded together, organized a ballot referendum toabolish the law, and got rid of it by a 52 to 48 margin. Just a month later,

Snyder signed an entirely new EM bill into law, thumbing his nose at democracy.

While Snyder maintains the EM laws are necessary to save financially-insolventmunicipalities from themselves, its worth noting that Snyder only enforces thelaws in Democratic-voting, predominantly-black communities, even though somewhite, Republican-leaning cities and towns are in equally dire financial straits. The2010 Census data shows that just 14.2 percent of Michigans residents are black

yet 80 percent of Michigans black residents have lived under an EM while Snyderhas been governor.

For example, in Handy Township and Livingsto

Detroit and Flint Water Struggles - Readings and Resources

Documents

Transcript of Detroit and Flint Water Struggles - Readings and Resources