Dear Subscriber,
Think the Flint water crisis is old news? Think again – it’s the story that won’t die.
Five years after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River, the costs in terms of human health, water system upgrades and the thicket of legal proceedings continue to mount.
And the more that is peeled back, the more questions bubble to the surface.
"There’s still a bunch of stuff we don’t know about, about how we went X to Y to Z,” said Ron Fonger, reporter at The Flint Journal. “I know there is more out there. I just know a little bit."
That’s quite a statement coming from Fonger, who has covered the water crisis from before it was a crisis – a decade ago, when the city began exploring ways to get out of an expensive water supply contract with the city of Detroit. No one has written more, or is more knowledgeable, about this tragic story.
Yet, he keeps uncovering new facets. This week, it was an expose that he co-reported with Emily Holden of The Guardian. Together, they showed that a consulting firm hired by Flint after the switch to river water was internally discussing the likelihood that the more corrosive river water could cause lead problems in the water supply.
But the public was not warned. In fact, at a public meeting Feb. 18, 2015 – as residents were complaining of discolored, foul water – the consultant’s presentation said: “Safe = Latest tests show water is in compliance with drinking water standards.”
Fonger wrote at the time: “Despite quality problems, ‘Your water is safe,’ says Flint consultant.”
It’s not a good look for the contractor, Veolia, which for its part says it told Dayne Walling, who was Flint mayor when the water source was switched. (Walling says it only reported corrosivity, not the possibility of lead in the water.)
We all want someone to pay for what happened to Flint. But we continue to learn is that it wasn't one person who held all the cards. It was a series of people, companies, politicians, and public servants who all made terrible decisions in the name of saving money.
“This story just shows another opportunity that was missed for someone to stand up and say what they knew," Fonger said. “A whole bunch of people had suspicions, and kept their mouths shut.”
The story about the revelations in the Veolia internal documents was the first time Fonger had worked with a reporter from another news organization. Glenza, who is based in Washington, D.C., had obtained the internal documents, which first surfaced in in a lawsuit by the Michigan attorney general against Veolia. She had the emails, but not the full background. And no one knows the substance of the subject better than Fonger.
But he’s still learning, and reporting, as the layers get pulled back. Such as that a contractor that was interested in a potential multimillion-dollar contract with the city of Flint internally discussed the lead contamination issue well before residents were told.
“In the bigger water crisis story, we know who knew what. Now we know the contractor knew, too,” Fonger said.
While progress has been made in improving the quality of Flint drinking water, the story of the crisis will continue – through restoring trust, replacing all the lead service lines in the city, and through a dozen-plus criminal and civil legal actions.
And there’s also the issue of who is ultimately responsible. This week’s joint reporting project inched forward the narrative of “who knew what, when.” But Fonger realizes he won’t be moving onto a new beat anytime soon.
“The water crisis story still has big holes in it,” he said. “People who were involved in this thing are not going out and standing on a soap box and saying, ‘This is what I said at the time.’”
No, it’s up to reporters to dig that out. One piece at a time, Fonger and MLive continue to fill in the picture – for you the reader, for the people of Flint, and for justice. |
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Sincerely,
John Hiner
Vice President of Content for MLive Media Group
Share your thoughts with him at editor@mlive.com |
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