A public health emergency was declared in Flint in October, and a state of emergency was declared in December, over the tap water in the area being tainted with levels of lead high enough in some households to be declared “toxic waste” by the EPA. However, according to a report obtained by Democracy Now!, the area jail lied to inmates about the quality of their water.
Those kept in the jail — including pregnant women — were forced to drink and bathe in the contaminated water, as well as eat food cooked with it. They were not provided bottled water until January 23.
According to Jody Cramer, an inmate who was tasked with handing out the water to his peers, inmates received only two 12-ounce bottles of water, twice a day — 48 ounces total. It is recommended by the Institute of Medicine that men drink 100 ounces of water a day, while women need 73 ounces.
Cramer also told Democracy Now! that deputies were going around pretending to be passing out water filtration systems, but actually were actually serving warrants.
“Here’s your water filtration system. By the way, you have a warrant for your arrest,” Cramer said.
Flint’s water poisoning began in April 2014, when the city stopped receiving its supply from Detroit, instead shifting to water taken directly from the Flint River, a source known to have a high corrosive salt content. Corrosive salts in the water damaged the pipes, which contain lead, causing that material to be released into the water, and contaminating it.
In October, the state changed the city’s drinking water source back from the polluted Flint River to the Detroit water system, but warned that the water is still not safe.
It has been revealed that many officials, including several in the US Environmental Protection Agency, knew the water was poisoned as early as April 2015, but took no action, and failed to warn the community.
The FBI has joined the US Postal Inspection Service, the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of the Inspector General, and the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, into the wide-ranging criminal probe of the Flint water crisis, to determine which laws were broken and who broke them in the poisoning of the city.
