QuickTake Q&A: Flint’s Water Crisis and Its Many Different Costs

The city of Flint, Michigan, knows from hard times. Battered by the closings of General Motors assembly plants since the 1970s -- the subject of the 1989 Michael Moore documentary "Roger & Me" -- the city lost about half of its population while poverty soared. The city was in financial receivership and under the jurisdiction of a state-appointed emergency manager, who controlled its spending, when it sought to save money on its drinking water. That turned out to be a mistake. Switching to a different source triggered a citywide health emergency that will carry financial and health costs for years to come.

Hazards found in Flint’s drinking water range in severity from E. coli bacteria, which can cause intestinal infection, to high levels of lead, which can stunt development of children. At least 87 people in Flint and its surrounding county came down with Legionnaires’ disease after the switch in supply, and 10 of them died, though those cases haven’t been definitively linked to the water. For a time Flint’s water also showed high levels of trihalomethanes, or THMs, which are byproducts of disinfectant chemicals and can cause liver and kidney damage and increase the risk of cancer.