On This Day in 2014: The Flint Water Crisis Begins

On this day in 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan stopped buying treated Lake Huron water from Detroit and began drawing from the Flint River instead. The switch was meant to be temporary while a new regional pipeline was built, and it was expected to save money. The river water was corrosive and was not treated to control that, so it began stripping lead from the city's aging service lines.

Residents complained about the smell, taste and color within weeks and were told the water was safe. Bacteria showed up that August. Independent testing eventually documented elevated lead in homes and in the blood of Flint children, and an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease during the same period killed at least twelve people. The city returned to Detroit water in October 2015, but the damaged pipes kept leaching.

Lead has no taste, no smell and no color, which is the part worth carrying forward. A tap can look and taste normal and still be the problem, and boiling concentrates lead rather than removing it. Knowing which method removes what is the whole of water purification, and a household that has practiced surviving with no running water is not helpless when the advisory lasts eighteen months.