'You Owe Me!': Over 1,000 Flint Residents Pen Letters to Govt Demanding Reimbursement for Water Crisis

Letters from over 1,000 residents from the city of Flint flooded Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s office with the words “You Owe Me!” shouting across the top of every page, demanding reimbursement for the water crisis that contaminated the city's taps and left families with soaring water bills despite being undrinkable.

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In the letters, residents detailed all the expenses they incurred over the past three years due to the lack of clean drinking water in Flint and the constant danger of lead poisoning that plague the city for years to come. Demands for reimbursement for thousands of dollars worth of visits to local hospitals, medication, new pipes, cloths, water, and household appliances and water bills were scratched on every page.

“There is no amount of money that can take back the sleepless nights spent worrying about my son’s speech or the amount of hair I have lost or the mysterious rashes we have had,” wrote Amanda Roark and Dennis Rizzo, city residents and victims of the water crisis.

In the face of the crisis, Snyder has faced harsh criticism for doing to little to late to remedy the crisis and assist Flint residents, instead taking a defensive position in amid the chaos and leaving the issue for the federal government to resolve. In March, the federal government promised a US$97 million settlement for the state of Michigan to replace the city’s lead-corroded water lines. In the meantime, the city has formed a plan to purchase clean water from the Great Lakes Water Authority from a nearby city. However, for many, the years’ damage has already been done.

One resident wrote that his 34-year-old daughter died and that he was a level 5 for lead, which is on the cusp of being considered an elevated blood lead level. He ended his letter with the biting words, “Trust in our leaders.”

Residents of the manufacturing city have struggled with the lead-infused water since 2014, when the city switched water sources from Lake Huron to the Flint River to cut costs while a new pipeline was being constructed between the great lake and the city.

However, a clean-up initiative in 2001 which targeted polluted sites along the Flint River near industrial complexes, landfills and farms using pesticides and fertilizer was later found to be incomplete. Consequently the switch resulted in water 19 times more corrosive than the water they had previously had access to, due to poor water treatment in the past years.

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The switch was made under an unelected emergency manager and slammed as a case of environmental racism. Authorities were slow to alert the public of the water safety issues, despite repeated complaints from residents for months. Flint’s water was switched back to the Detroit system in October 2015 after the corrosive water of the Flint River was allowed to flow into people’s homes for 18 months, causing serious damage to water pipes and lead contamination.

In the last three years, the citizens of Flint have lived with the constant fear that the turn of a tap would bring a high risk of cancer and lead poison among other afflictions as the rust colored water filled into the sink. Already, the majority of children and residents have registered high levels of lead poisoning.

“The only thing that can be fixed from your negligence are the water using appliances our corrosive water has damaged and we have done that," wrote Roark to the governor. "No matter how many times you try to shift the blame, I know that this terrible time in my community is your fault. I don’t know how you sleep at night.”

Resentment boils over as residents have received aid from celebrities, Detroit-native musicians and sport stars, but an inadequate response from their elected head of state.