What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

This chapter summarizes the red flags that journalists, Flint residents, and government employees raised regarding the lead levels in Flint’s water. One example is that of LeeAnne Walters, a mother and resident of Flint’s south side. A few months after the water switch, her family experienced rashes, abdominal pain, hair loss, and one of her children stopped growing. Even with flushing, a guideline recommended by MDEQ, the Walters’ water had astronomically high lead levels. There were also elevated lead levels in her children’s blood. Walters notified the city of her children’s high blood-lead levels, but city officials blamed her household plumbing since the city’s water tests showed it in compliance with federal regulations. To provide the family with lead-free water, the city arranged for a garden hose to run from a neighbor’s house to Walters’ house. However, the plumbing was not the lead source. Walters installed new plumbing made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) when the family moved in.

Walters eventually contacted Del Toral and told him her research-grounded hypothesis: the city was not using corrosion control, and the corrosive water was leaching lead from the water pipes. Based on the lack of corrosion control chemicals on the city’s publicly available list of chemicals used to treat Flint’s water, Walters was right.