2017 Flint Mission – March 20, 2017

Towards the end of the 2015 the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan was all over the news. It turns out that high levels of lead and other contaminants were discovered in the drinking water. The cause of the contamination was a 2014 decision to use the Flint River as the water source in an effort to save the city millions of dollars. It turns out the water department officials failed to properly treat the river water before sending it into the underground pipes which supplied many of the local homes and businesses. Officials denied the water was contaminated for years even though more and more city residents were showing the effects of lead poisoning.

Beginning January 2016 the Lott Carey organization began mobilizing teams of volunteers to come to Flint to help distribute bottled water. They also joined many organizations seeking donations of bottled water. Alfred Street Baptist Church responded by sending teams to Flint for six consecutive weeks and collecting almost $80,000 in donations from our congregants. I was blessed to be a part of two of the teams which came to lend a hand.

Fast-forward to March 2017…Today the Flint water crisis is no longer a news story. Many think this means the problems have been resolved. This is far from the truth. What is true is:

• high levels of lead and other contaminants are still present in the city supplied water;
• Residents are still encouraged to use bottled water for personal consumption, bathing, cooking and cleaning;
• Because the story is no longer in the news, donations have significantly fallen off;
• the city is doing very little to resolve the problem.

Charles Monterio, Bill Emory, June Monterio, Andre Lipford, and I arrived yesterday to provide support to the efforts of Trinity Missionary Baptist Church. The church has been providing FREE bottled water to city residents for more than two years. Monday through Saturday, from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm, anyone can stop by the church and pickup cases of bottled water. Deacon Bill Quarles who has been the point person for First Trinity’s water distribution shared that they are one of a few organizations which still gives away water. Most residents must purchase the water they consume from retail outlets. Deacon Quarles further indicated that they are the only organization in Flint to provide gallon containers of water which is sorely needed for bathing, cooking and cleaning.

Just to put things in perspective:

• the average toilet uses 3.5-7 gallons with each flush;
• a washing machine uses an average of 15-30 gallons of water per load;
• a typical shower takes 8 minutes and uses 17.2 gallons of water;
• it takes 35-50 gallons of water to fill a bath tub.

Today our team handed out 84 cases of bottled water, 34 cases of gallon water (6 gallons each), and 12 packages of handwipes/handsanitizers. We also helped unload 5 palettes or roughly 360 cases of bottled water delivered to this distribution site.