Flint, Michigan, has completed its lead water pipe replacement project more than a decade after the city's water crisis drew national attention. According to a recent court report, 11,000 lead pipes have been replaced and 28,000 properties have been inspected, NBC News reports. The milestone comes after years of legal pressure and public outcry. The crisis began in 2014, when the city switched its water source from Detroit to the Flint River as a temporary cost-saving measure while a pipeline to Lake Huron was built.
Residents soon complained about the water's cloudy appearance, and health officials later detected high levels of contaminants, including lead and E. coli. Despite reassurances from city authorities that the water was safe, Flint did not return to Detroit's system until late 2015. The CDC estimates nearly 100,000 residents were exposed to lead during the crisis because the city failed to ensure there were corrosion-control chemicals in the new water supply, resulting in lead leaching from old pipes, the Washington Post reports.
A 2017 lawsuit resulted in a $626 million settlement, which included free lead pipe replacement. About 4,000 homes in Flint still have lead pipes, either because the properties are vacant or the owners declined replacement, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health at the NRDC, says the removal of lead pipes in Flint is "historic," the Post reports. "It really showed people power to push back against a government that was shrugging its shoulders and not caring about the people across the city that had lead-contaminated water," he says.
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