In a small, low-income city in Michigan, an attempt to save money for the financially-drowning local government backfired catastrophically, resulting in one of the worst public health crises in recent years. The city’s residents, about 10,000 of them children under the age of nine, have in the last two years encountered heavily toxic water every time they turn on a shower head or a kitchen faucet. In an attempt to understand how such a harmful mistake could have occurred, many have pointed to a financially-desperate local government, incompetent and unchecked leadership, and even a lack of environmental safety protocol in Michigan.
Besides the question of how such a mistake was made, another question is not so easily answered: Why didn’t the public know sooner? The city moved its water supply source to the Flint River in April 2014, and, despite, continual concerns about the safety of the water beginning soon after the switch, residents were not officially advised against using their tap water until October 2015.
In recent months, the narrative of this public health crisis has taken root in the city of Ithaca. Routine lead testing in Caroline and Enfield schools last August found elevated lead levels in the water. Parents were not notified within the EPA-mandated thirty day time period; in fact, they were first notified early this month, almost six months after the initial testing. In both Flint, Michigan and Enfield and Caroline schools, officials did not communicate properly with their communities, nor did they investigate issues carefully and scientifically enough.
Caroline and Enfield schools are tested every three years because they come from a separate water source; the rest of ICSD buildings are not required to be tested on any regular schedule, because they get their water from the public city source which is subject to its own routine testing. However, disturbing results from the 2015 tests in Caroline and Enfield prompted the district to look into the status of the other schools—and what they found is not any more reassuring. The rest of the ICSD buildings have not been tested since 2005, and the results from 11 years ago often show many tap water sources containing lead levels over the regulation amount.
In Enfield and Caroline, many unclear variables muddle the case and blur the rights and wrongs committed by the school district and the Tompkins County Health Department. The testing in August was conducted after two months of summer vacation, during which the water sat idle in pipes and accumulated much more dissolved lead than active water would have. In discussions since the lead levels became public information, ICSD has cited these misleading results, due to poorly-designed testing conditions, as justification for its lack of further action and communication with the Health Department and the public.
Additionally, EPA standards for lead safety do not require that any action be taken if levels are above normal in 10 percent or less of testing samples. After retesting in January, Caroline still failed this rule, with two out of its ten testing samples revealing abnormal lead levels, but Enfield passed, with only one out of ten. It is also unclear how many of these testing sites would be likely sources of direct drinking water, but the probable answer is not many. Despite these fairly unalarming numbers, many parents are clinging to an indisputable fact: that at least one water fountain in each school had over 150 parts per billion of lead when tested in August— over ten times the acceptable level—and neither of these fountains were turned off when students returned to school.
ICSD conducted the testing that they were mandated to do, and then even extra steps to test more sites than necessary in both schools; however, it neglected to respond to what the district is calling “anomalies,” and more importantly, it failed to communicate in a clear and timely manner with the public. In Ithaca schools besides Enfield and Caroline, water sources remained contaminated for 11 years before the public was alerted and any test results were published. Breakdowns of communication between public health officials and their communities are rampant—one only has to look to Flint, Michigan to see the harshest effects. It is becoming abundantly clear that the people who are supposed to serve and protect us often hide the truth. Later, when in our harried distress we demand accountability and reparations, we are comforted with scripted jargon of apologies and excused responsibilities.
Trust in public officials has all but vanished for parents of Enfield and Caroline students, and, increasingly for the parents of children in other schools as more information is released about the overall 2005 tests that yielded worrisome results. In response to remaining recommendations from the Tompkins County Health Department that parents need not set up lead-testing appointments for their children, one mother angrily replied, “Do you think that we trust you? Do you think that we would go with that recommendation?” If the Health Department didn’t tell parents what they morally and legally had a right to know six months ago, why should parents trust vague assurances that they are making to them now? It doesn’t take much for a parent’s concern about their child’s health to trump any blind trust in authority, and for many Ithaca parents, that line has long ago been crossed.
There was no excuse for ICSD waiting six months to send home a flyer notifying parents about high levels of lead, nor to let 11 years pass before the lead issue in district schools became public. The responsibility of local government is not only to keep people healthy and safe but also to be transparent about issues that affect health and safety (and, in this case, issues that are specifically mandated to be transparent.)
It was also indefensible for the initial testing in Enfield and Caroline to be conducted with such disregard for the scientific method. Excess variables were not removed during the August tests, leading ultimately to confusion, frustration, and potentially unnecessary money and time spent investigating a problem that may have been fabricated purely from poor experimental design. This case can prove the absolute necessity of the scientific method and well-planned experiments to any skeptical middle school science student.
Obviously, outdated lead pipes are returning to haunt an aging America. In coming years, the threat to public health posed by high lead levels in water will continue to rise, forming an especially disturbing danger for young children. In Flint, Michigan, and in Enfield and Caroline schools, officials did not adhere to proper protocol of communication and objective evaluation, which led to an escalation of public fear and anger. If the problem of lead-contaminated water can be handled scientifically, transparently, and calmly in the future, we will be able to begin to protect ourselves and our children against these serious toxins.