Title: Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know | NRDC
Headings: Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know
Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know
Jump to Section
Flint Water Crisis Summary
Lead levels in Flint water
More problems with Flint water
Flint residents go to court
Flint Water Crisis Update
Does Flint have safe water yet?
Flint water crisis charges
Why Is Lead-contaminated Water Bad?
Flint Water Crisis Timeline
April 25, 2014
June 6, 2014
June 30, 2014
August 14, 2014
October 13, 2014
January 2, 2015
January 7, 2015
January 12, 2015
January 21, 2015
February 25, 2015
March 23, 2015
June 5, 2015
June 24, 2015
August 17, 2015
September 2015
September 24, 2015
September 25, 2015
October 1, 2015
October 2, 2015
October 16, 2015
October 21, 2015
November 21, 2015
December 14, 2015
January 15, 2016
January 21, 2016
January 27, 2016
March 24, 2016
December 10, 2016
January 24, 2017
February 17, 2017
March 17, 2017
December 31, 2017
April 6, 2018
June 14, 2018
July 19, 2018
August 21, 2018
February 12, 2019
Water from the Flint River starts flowing to city residents. Although Detroit water, which had previously supplied Flint customers, is treated with corrosion inhibitors to reduce the amount of lead that can leach into water supplies from water pipes and plumbing fixtures, officials decide not to use anticorrosive agents to treat Flint’s river water (a measure some say would have cost as little as $80 per day ). Soon after, city residents start complaining that their water smells, tastes, and looks funny. An official at the MDEQ suggests that improper use of fire hydrants for street-cleaning activities may be to blame.
The first known case of Legionnaires’ disease is reported in an outbreak that will ultimately kill 12 people and sicken at least 87 in Genesee County, home to Flint, over the next 16 months. It is later determined that the switch from Detroit water to Flint River water—which was found to have been inadequately disinfected with chlorine—caused a spike in disease-causing legionella bacteria. Although state officials learn of the outbreak as early as January 2015, the public isn’t alerted to it for another year.
Flint residents attend the first of many community meetings about the deteriorating quality—and rising cost—of Flint River water.
Fecal coliform, a type of bacteria (including E. coli) that indicates potential contamination by human or animal waste, is detected in a portion of Flint’s water supply system. The city issues the first of a series of “boil water” advisories for residents in impacted areas and takes steps to remedy the problem by upping the amount of chlorine used to disinfect the water and by flushing water systems. Concerns arise because boiling water, while necessary to kill bacteria, increases the concentration of lead in the water.
Citing concerns that the high level of chloride in Flint water is corrosive to engine parts, a General Motors plant announces it will stop using local water. Despite this announcement—another red flag among many—the city continues pumping river water to homes.
Flint officials notify residents that their water is in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act due to excess levels of TTHM—an issue officials reportedly learned of months before. The warning notice states that the harmful chemicals (by-products that can result from the chlorination of water) can imperil “liver, kidneys, or central nervous systems” and may cause an “increased risk of getting cancer” in those who consume large quantities of them over years, but that otherwise the water is safe to drink. High levels of TTHM in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act persist until September 2015.
Despite assuring Flint residents that the city’s water is safe for drinking, filtered water is provided to government employees in Flint’s State Office Building for “as long as the public water does not meet treatment requirements.”
As residents’ concerns over Flint’s water quality mount, Detroit offers to reconnect the city to its water system and waive the $4 million reconnection fee. Flint leaders decline the offer, stating the increase in costs to use Detroit’s water “would not be in the best interests of the city or its water users.”
Flint hosts its first city hall meeting to address water safety. Residents lug jugs of discolored tap water from home to show city and state officials, insisting the water is causing rashes on children and sickening people and pets. Still, officials maintain the water is safe.
After the EPA is contacted by a Flint resident about tests revealing high lead levels in the water, the local EPA office notifies the MDEQ, in what appears to be the first exchange between the EPA and MDEQ about lead contamination and corrosion control in Flint. The local MDEQ supervisor states that Flint has an “optimized corrosion control program” in place.
Members of Flint’s City Council vote 7–1 to reconnect Flint to the Detroit water system. One day later, Jerry Ambrose, the city’s emergency manager, overrules the vote and calls it “incomprehensible”—maintaining “water from Detroit is not safer than water from Flint.”
A lawsuit demanding that Flint be reconnected to Detroit’s water is filed by Concerned Pastors for Social Action and other activists. The case is dismissed by a circuit court judge in September 2015.
In an internal memo, an EPA official warns that the lack of corrosion control treatment for lead and copper is a “major” public health concern and that the city’s water sampling methods may be significantly underestimating lead levels. When the memo is leaked, an MDEQ spokesman responds, “Anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax.”
After city water samples from the first six months of 2015 indicate lead levels of 11 ppb, MDEQ recommends Flint implement corrosion control measures “as soon as possible, but no later than January 1, 2016.”
After residents organize a sampling effort, a team of Virginia Tech researchers analyzes 252 Flint water samples taken in August and September 2015 and reports that nearly 17 percent of samples measure above the 15 ppb federal lead action level. The team also determines that Flint’s water is 19 times more corrosive than Detroit’s, and thus significantly more apt to leach lead from pipes and plumbing. The MDEQ dismisses the findings.
Spearheaded by Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, a study of more than 1,700 blood samples from Flint children finds that the incidence of elevated blood-lead levels in the city’s kids has nearly doubled, with the incidence of levels in certain zip codes nearly tripling, since the April 2014 switch to river water.
The city of Flint issues its first lead advisory since the switch to Flint River water. It directs residents worried about lead in their water to schedule a free water test. A few days later, Genesee County issues its own advisory recommending that concerned citizens use a filter to reduce or eliminate lead, or to use bottled water.
Flint residents and national groups, including NRDC, file an emergency petition with the EPA seeking immediate assistance in securing safe drinking water for Flint residents. The EPA takes no action.
After initially dismissing Hanna-Attisha’s data, MDHHS officials ultimately confirm her findings. Governor Snyder announces a plan to ensure residents have access to safe drinking water, including testing school water for lead (which soon reveals elevated lead levels at schools), distributing thousands of free water filters, and expanding water and blood testing. Soon after, the governor approves $9 million in funding to address Flint’s water crisis.
Eighteen months after the switch to Flint River water, residents are reconnected to Detroit water, though they are advised to continue using filtered or bottled water until the new, properly treated water is flushed through the system. Just days later, the state admits it failed to ensure that the proper anticorrosion control measures were in place to prevent the leaching of lead from pipes when the city began using Flint River water. Even after the reconnection to Detroit’s treated water, it will take more than a year for the anticorrosion treatment to work effectively to reduce lead levels in Flint’s tap water.
Governor Snyder establishes an independent task force to examine actions taken to address the crisis and recommend steps to ensure safe water. Its preliminary report, in December 2015, places the majority of blame on the MDEQ, spurring the resignation of top officials from the agency. The final March 2016 report declares the water crisis a case of “environmental injustice.” It calls out both the MDEQ and the MDHHS for failing to protect public health by discrediting and dismissing the attempts of others to expose the city’s unsafe water, elevated lead levels, and the Legionnaires’ outbreak.
After waiting nearly two months for the EPA to respond to its emergency petition for action, a coalition of residents and groups—including Melissa Mays, Concerned Pastors for Social Action, the ACLU of Michigan, and NRDC—file a notice of intent to sue the city of Flint and several state and local officials. The notice alleges several failures to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, including numerous violations of the federal Lead and Copper Rule.
Newly elected Flint mayor Karen Weaver declares a state of emergency in response to the elevated lead levels in the city’s water. Over the next month, Governor Snyder declares a state of emergency for Genesee County, and President Obama declares a federal emergency in Flint, freeing up funds for federal support.
In connection with the January 2016 lawsuit, a motion is filed asking a federal court to make sure that all Flint residents have access to safe water—either through home delivery of bottled water or a program to ensure that all residents have a properly installed and maintained faucet filter. In November 2016, a federal judge rules in favor of residents.
The EPA issues an emergency order directing the state and city to take immediate action on the Flint water crisis and admonishing their continued slow response to the water crisis.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette begins an independent review of the Flint crisis. By April 2016, criminal charges are filed against the first of 15 government officials ultimately faulted for contributing to or causing the Flint water crisis. Civil lawsuits will be filed by the attorney general as well against two companies, Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, hired by the city to assist with Flint’s water treatment procedures. The most prominent official charged is MDHHS Director Nick Lyon, who is ordered in August 2018 to stand trial on two involuntary manslaughter charges linked to the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette begins an independent review of the Flint crisis. By April 2016, criminal charges are filed against the first of 15 government officials ultimately faulted for contributing to or causing the Flint water crisis. Civil lawsuits will be filed by the attorney general as well against two companies, Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, hired by the city to assist with Flint’s water treatment procedures. The most prominent official charged is MDHHS Director Nick Lyon, who is ordered in August 2018 to stand trial on two involuntary manslaughter charges linked to the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
The U.S. Senate approves a bill allocating $100 million in funds to address lead contamination in Flint’s water supply system. A week later, House Republicans conclude their yearlong investigation into Flint’s crisis, faulting both state officials and the EPA.
For the first time since 2015, when testing revealed elevated lead levels in Flint’s drinking water, MDEQ finds that the city’s water had tested below the federal action level for lead from July to December 2016. It recommends residents continue using filtered water for drinking and cooking until Flint’s lead service lines are replaced.
A report by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission asserts that “deeply embedded institutional, systemic, and historical racism” played a fundamental role in the decision to supply the majority-black city of Flint with river water as a cost-saving measure.
The EPA provides $100 million from the federal funding appropriated in December 2016 to accelerate and expand the city’s replacement of lead service lines in Flint and to make other water infrastructure improvements.
As of the end of 2017, the city has identified and replaced more than 6,000 lead service lines, using funding guaranteed by the settlement in the lawsuit brought by community groups and NRDC.
After MDEQ reports Flint’s water has measured below the federal lead action level for nearly four consecutive six-month periods (from July 2016 to March 2018), Governor Snyder announces Flint will no longer distribute free bottled water to residents—prompting concerns about ongoing water quality issues.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette begins an independent review of the Flint crisis. By April 2016, criminal charges are filed against the first of 15 government officials ultimately faulted for contributing to or causing the Flint water crisis. Civil lawsuits will be filed by the attorney general as well against two companies, Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, hired by the city to assist with Flint’s water treatment procedures. The most prominent official charged is MDHHS Director Nick Lyon, who is ordered in August 2018 to stand trial on two involuntary manslaughter charges linked to the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
Using the Flint water crisis as an example of what not to let happen again, the EPA’s inspector general issues a report that calls on the agency to strengthen oversight of state drinking water programs and improve its emergency response capabilities.
NRDC and other groups affiliated with the March 2017 settlement return to court for a hearing to ensure key provisions of the order are being met by the city. The groups argue that the city is failing to manage its pipe replacements in accordance with the settlement terms.
In an agreement filed by the parties of the 2017 settlement, the city of Flint committed to using a data-driven approach to locate the remaining lead pipes delivering drinking water to residents’ homes. The city will use a statistical model—already proven effective in earlier efforts—to guide its selection of homes for service line excavations in 2019. This approach will increase efficiency and help ensure all remaining lead pipes are identified and removed.
Beyond Flint
Turning on the Tap in America
Learn More
Related Stories

Content: elevated levels of total trihalomethanes (TTHM), cancer-causing chemicals that are by-products of the chlorination of water. Flint residents go to court
One of the few bright spots of the Flint water crisis was the response of everyday citizens who, faced with the failure of city, state, and federal agencies to protect them, united to force the government to do its job. On the heels of the release of test results in the fall of 2015 showing elevated lead levels in Flint’s water—and its children— local residents joined with NRDC and other groups to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to launch an immediate emergency federal response to the disaster. The EPA failed to act, which only spurred residents on. In early 2016, a coalition of citizens and groups—including Flint resident Melissa Mays, the local group Concerned Pastors for Social Action, NRDC, and the ACLU of Michigan— sued the city and state officials in order to secure safe drinking water for Flint residents. Among the demands of the suit: the proper testing and treatment of water for lead and the replacement of all the city’s lead pipes. In March 2016, the coalition took additional action to address an urgent need, filing a motion to ensure that all residents—including children, the elderly, and others unable to reach the city’s free water distribution centers—would have access to safe drinking water through a bottled water delivery service or a robust filter installation and maintenance program. Those efforts paid off. In November 2016, a federal judge sided with Flint residents and ordered the implementation of door-to-door delivery of bottled water to every home without a properly installed and maintained faucet filter.