A clear lesson in Flint's cloudy water

The long-standing lack of concern at every level of government about poisonous water in Flint, Mich., should serve as a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation. People's lives are at stake when environmental safeguards are ignored for economic or political considerations.

In 2014, Flint opted out of Detroit's water system, which draws from Lake Huron, to save money. The town started getting its water from the Flint River while a less expensive provider built a new pipeline to Lake Huron. But the river water was corrosive enough to leach lead out of Flint's pipes. Residents almost immediately complained about the water quality, but no one seemed to care.

It's hard to believe that a more affluent community's complaints about the look, smell, and corrosiveness of its water would have been ignored for so long. People in poor, mostly black Flint went to everyone they could think of to complain. They brought jars of brown water to meetings as visible evidence that something was wrong. But for more than a year, neither local authorities nor the governor's office nor the federal Environmental Protection Agency, whose scientists had tried to sound the alarm about lead levels, did anything.

In April, an independent investigation by Virginia Tech researchers showed elevated lead levels in the water, and still nothing was done. Only after the university's results became public knowledge in September did that begin to change. That was also when Flint's Hurley Medical Center reported a doubling of elevated lead levels among children 5 and under in the city. Virginia Tech researchers accused Michigan officials of trying to hide the evidence of lead contamination.

That seemed to get Gov. Rick Snyder's attention, and the state did its own study showing elevated lead levels in 43 Flint residents. Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, subsequently resigned. So did Susan Hedman, the EPA's regional administrator, after it was revealed that the agency knew as long ago as February that Flint residents might be drinking lead-tainted water.

Flint has returned to getting its water from Lake Huron, but no one knows how much harm has already been done, and the corroded pipes have not been replaced.

Lead poisoning can cause brain damage in children that may not be immediately discernible. Flint parents wouldn't be worrying about that now had anticorrosive agents been added to the river water when public officials opted for a cheaper water supplier.

In another time, Flint's story might not be remarkable. In the early 20th century, Philadelphians got their water from rivers polluted by factories and mills. Typhoid epidemics broke out as a result. It took a lot of money and a hard political fight to build the city's first water treatment plants, but the effort saved lives.

That's a lesson worth remembering a hundred years later, when environmental rules are dismissed as impediments to job creation. People can get sick, and sometimes die, when air and water quality rules are ignored. Here's hoping that won't be the fate of Flint's children.