CHAPTER 8: BLOOD

0.   .  Flint Water Study, “Flint Press Conference Sep 15 2015 (One Year Anniversary Release),” YouTube Video, 21.29 minutes, September 17, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwg5L3mYUEI. See also Ron Fonger, “Virginia Tech Professor Says Flint’s Tests for Lead Are Bad and Can’t Be Trusted,” MLive—Flint Journal, September 15, 2015.

0.   .  Siddhartha Roy, “For the Citizens of Flint,” slideshow presentation at Saints of God Church, Flint, Michigan; Flint Water Study, September 15, 2015, slide 24, available online at http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/distribution-of-lead-results-across-flint-by-ward-and-zip-codes/.

0.   .  Sonya Lee interview by Cherise Lee, April 16, 2016, StoryCorps, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., SC1001065.

0.   .  Brad Wurfel sent this in an email to Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal on September 9, 2015, according to chronologies by the Flint Water Study team and Bridge Magazine. The message was partially quoted in Fonger’s story the following day: “Feds Sending in Experts to Help Flint Keep Lead out of Water,” MLive—Flint Journal, September 10, 2015.

0.   .  Brad Wurfel sent this email on August 27, 2015. Captured in the chronological compilation of MDEQ emails from FOIA requests posted on FlintWaterStudy.org on October 10, 2015.

0.   .  See also Joel Kurth, Jonathan Oosting, Christine MacDonald, and Jim Lynch, “DEQ Official: Staffers Earn Raises for Flint Work,” Detroit News, February 12, 2016.

0.   .  Ron Fonger, “Governor Helped Hush-Hush Delivery of Water Filters to Flint Pastors,” MLive—Flint Journal, September 29, 2015.

0.   .  Ibid.

0.   .  Email sent from Michelle Bruneau to Kory Groestch on September 10, 2015. Meanwhile, internal conversations between the EPA and the MDEQ acknowledged the “further evidence that lead levels in Flint are trending upward.” The agencies were now under pressure by residents, scientists, and, increasingly, Flint’s representatives in Lansing and Washington to deal with the lack of corrosion control soon, “to protect the residents from exposure to high lead levels.” This amounted to a tacit admission that the water concerns were credible, but any validation was undercut by the public criticism of the activists and scientists and the continued defense of the official tests showing the water was safe. It didn’t help that while the MDEQ had agreed to a corrosion control plan in Flint, it kept arguing about it with the EPA. But either way, it was going to take a long time to implement the treatment—long enough that it probably made the point moot.

0. .  This section relies primarily on the author’s June 20, 2017, interview with Elin Betanzo in Detroit, Michigan, as well as her email responses to follow-up questions; and on Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha’s testimonies to numerous investigative committees; and on a profile: Robin Erb, “Flint Doctor Makes State See Light about Lead in Water,” Detroit Free Press, October 10, 2015, updated October 12, 2015.

0. .  Erb, “Flint Doctor Makes State See Light.”

0. .  “Hurley Doctor Recommends Switching Away from Flint River,” MLive, YouTubeVideo, 1.04 minutes, September 24, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tELb594WTw.

0. .  Erb, “Flint Doctor Makes State See Light.”

0. .  Nancy Kaffer, “When Did State Know Kids in Flint were Lead Poisoned?,” Detroit Free Press, December 17, 2015.

0. .  Kristi Tanner and Nancy Kaffer, “State Data Confirms Higher Blood-Lead Levels in Flint Kids,” Detroit Free Press, September 26, 2015, updated September 29, 2015.

0. .  The study was eventually published in a peer-reviewed journal. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Jenny LaChance, Richard Casey Sadler, and Allison Champney Schnepp, “Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Children Associated with the Flint Drinking Water Crisis: A Spatial Analysis of Risk and Public Health Response,” American Journal of Public Health 106, no. 2 (February 1, 2016): 283–90. See also Sammy Zahran, Shawn P. McElmurry, and Richard C. Sadler, “Four Phases of the Flint Water Crisis: Evidence from Blood Lead Levels in Children,” Environmental Research 157 (2017): 160–72.

0. .  Erin Einhorn, “The Hero of Flint’s Water Crisis,” Alumnus, Spring 2015.

0. .  “Fight Song,” Hurley Medical Center/MLive, “Hurley Children’s Hospital, creates heartwarming video to ‘Fight Song,’” YouTube video, 3.55 minutes, August 25, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-TE3ulFWno.

0. .  The email was sent from Debbie Balthazar to Timothy Henry and Steve Marquadt on September 24, 2015. It was part of a batch of EPA emails that were released in May 2016 as part of the investigation by the U.S. Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform, https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Documents-for-the-Record.pdf.

0. .  Tanner and Kaffer, “State Data Confirms.”

0. .  “Public Health Emergency Declaration for People Using the Flint City Water Supply with the Flint River as a Source,” Genesee County Board of Commissioners, October 1, 2015, http://www.gc4me.com/docs/public_health_emergency_announcement_10_1_15.pdf.

0. .  On Mission of Hope, see Scott Atkinson, “In Bad Times and Worse, Pastor Bobby Is Flint’s Water Man,” Belt Magazine, January 25, 2016; and Jessica Dupnack, “Mission of Hope in Flint Looking for Donations to Reopen Full Time,” ABC12 WJRT-TV, August 25, 2015.

0. .  Monica Davey, “Flint Officials Are No Longer Saying the Water Is Fine,” New York Times, October 7, 2015.

0. .  Key details in this section, and the conversation with Brad Wurfel, are sourced here: Erb, “Flint Doctor Makes State See Light.”

0. .  Ibid.

0. .  Steve Carmody, “State Plan for Flint’s Water Woes Doesn’t Please Some Residents,” Michigan Radio, October 2, 2015.