Erin Brockovich Keeping an Eye on Flint's 'Poop Water'

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich posted this photo of water from Flint on her public Facebook page. She says she’ll come to Flint to help residents get answers to their questions about the safety of water if necessary. (Photo via Facebook)

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Erin Brockovich – the environmental activist whose sleuthing as a legal assistant led to a record $333 million judgment against a California utility company in the 1990s and a major motion picture – says she’ll come to Flint to get clear answers about drinking water some are calling “poop water.”

City officials insist Flint’s water is safe, even if it looks unappealing.

Mayor Dayne Walling, a Flint native, says he drinks the water. Walling allows the “perception persists” that the river remains polluted from toxins left behind by heavy industrial activity in the past, but says it’s cleaner than it has been for years, he said.

Many Flint residents aren’t persuaded, calling it putrid “third world water” they can’t bathe or wash clothes in, and blaming it for rashes and bouts with diarrhea and vomiting.

“I’ve taken to calling it ‘poop water,’ “ Democracy Defense League community activist Nayyirah Shariff told the Detroit Free Press.

Those concerns have made bottled water a hot commodity in Flint over the last nine months. It flies off store shelves with lightning speed, a condition illustrated Wednesday, Michigan Radio reported, when the 200 cases of free bottled water went almost as quickly as it could be unloaded by volunteers with Flint Strong.

Flint Strong is a group aimed at helping the beleaguered city, often a top contender on the FBI’s list of the nation’s most dangerous small cities and under emergency management until it can get its financial house in order.

The water woes and Brockovich’s pledge on Facebook that she’ll come to Flint help knock on whatever doors are necessary to help clear up unanswered questions about the city’s murky water isn’t helping the city’s image.

City Dumps Detroit, Gets Water from Flint River

High-quality water wasn’t one problem Flint didn’t have until August, when the city dropped Detroit Water and Sewerage Department service and began drawing its water from the Flint River. It was a financial move, meant to protect struggling residents from ever increasing bills as DWSD wrestled with its own debt.

The problems began soon after the switch was made, and the city was even slapped with Safe Water Drinking Act violations because of its efforts to clean up the water.

Chlorine treatments cleaned the water of illness-causing microbial pathogens, but left behind higher-than-acceptable levels of the disinfectant byproduct trihalomethane (TTMH). Boil advisories were issued issued three times in August and September after coliform bacteria was detected.

No “Blanket Statement” on Water Safety

Michael Prysby, a district engineer for the state’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, said the water is safe for healthy people to drink for a short time.

It would take decades for the high TTMH levels to have serious health consequences for those most at risk – the very young and elderly people, as well as people who are very ill, he said.

“We don’t want to make a blanket statement to say water is safe or unsafe,” Prysby said. “It’s misleading both ways.”

In other words, “it’s safe, but it’s brown water,” said one of a dozen protesters waving signs that read “Are you trying to kills us?” and “No more poison” in Flint last week.

“Why do we have to drink brown water?” Cindy Marshall, a radiology coder, told the Free Press. “No one else has to drink brown water.”

The water is causing other problems for a city that can’t afford another ding.

GM retiree Claire McClinton told the Free Press the water problems are creating “a full-blown crisis.” Some longtime residents say they’re ready to abandon their homes, and eateries that depend on strong lunch traffic report up to a 30 percent decline because people looking for an inexpensive lunch are afraid to drink the tap water and don’t want to add $2 or so for a bottled drink.

Eventually, the city will join the Karegnondi Water Authority, which will supply Genesee County with water from Lake Huron, but that system won’t go online until sometime in 2016.

Brockovich: Hundreds of Cities Have Failing Water Systems

On her public Facebook page, Brockovich said she’s prepared to come to Flint to shake things up, The Flint Journal/MLive reports. In a post earlier this month, she added Flint to “the list of hundreds of cities, towns and community water systems that are failing. Bottom line, they have made many bad choices ... yet (there) are real solutions.”

She said pressure should be placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Environmental Quality and and politicians from Gov. Rick Snyder down to Mayor Walling to deliver clean, safe water to Flint residents.

“Until the Safe Drinking Water Act is really enforced,” she posted, “drinking water in the United States will be equal to a third world country.”

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