Nikolai Kuvshinikov

Professor Sinniah

CHEM-104

23 April 2019

Flint Water Crisis

Despite water appearing simple, it can have great consequences when changing

to a new source of water because of one property of water; equilibrium. The Flint water

crisis was caused by a complex mixture of acids, chlorine, salts, and various other

chemicals. The corrosion of lead pipes is what caused lead to be found in such high

amounts in Flint water. Even though it went unreported for a shocking eighteen months,

the corrosion of lead pipes happened relatively quickly. How did such a tragic even

happen?

It all started in 2014 when Flint, Michigan decided to begin using its own river as

its source of water – this caused a deadly chain reaction to occur. This seemingly

simple change caused the levels of lead in the water to reach 13,200 ppb, which is 900

times higher than the 15 ppb limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency!

Corrosion is prevented in lead pipes by adding something called an orthophosphate (i.e

PO43-). Orthophosphates do so by bonding with lead, which create a protective coating

that separates lead and water. This covering keeps chemicals like dissolved oxygen

from reacting with lead, which causes lead atoms to become oxidized. If this oxidation

does occur, the oxygen will remove electrons from lead, grab H+, and turn into water.

This will allow lead to dissolve into water. This is why that barrier is so vital in preventing

the corrosion of lead pipes.

 If orthophosphates are not added frequently, this barrier will break down. This is

what happened when Flint switched to river water. The water treatment plant if Flint did

not add orthophosphates, and so, the pipes began to corrode. This process was sped

up by the high amount of chlorides in the river water. This high amount of chloride came

from chloride in the chloride disinfection of water and also from the large amount of road

salt used during winter. The addition of orthophosphates also lowers the acidity of water

by reacting with water to release OH- into water, therefore making water more basic.

These basic conditions protect that solid layer, while more acidic conditions will dissolve

the layer. Without the addition of orthophosphates, the river water became acidic,

neutralizing OH-, and dissolving the layer.

There was also an outbreak of E. coli following the switch. What could have

caused this? When the layer dissolved, this allowed iron to reduce the amount of

chlorine in the water. Chlorine acts as a disinfectant, so when it was reduced, along with

iron being oxidized similarly to lead, this all prompted new bacterial growth. Flint then

decided to add more chlorine in hopes of disinfecting the water, but the chlorine only

oxidized more iron, promoting more bacterial growth.

As Christians, we need to keep in mind that God calls us to bring peace to this

world. Water is unfortunately not evenly distributed throughout the globe, and many

people do not have access to clean water. How should we as Christians respond to

this? I believe it is our duty to carry out our duty as stewards of this earth, as God calls

us to. We are called to take care of the earth. With the water crisis in Flint, Christians

should respond by giving up their time to provide residents with water. I also believe that

since we are called to “love your neighbor as yourself”, we need to be placing the needs
of the suffering above our needs. We can do this by not only making sure water is

provided in Flint, but by directly helping families who have suffered from this disaster.

What this really boils down to is our ability to bear Christ’s image. Jesus wants us to

embody ideal Christian behavior, and by devoting ourselves to such a cause, we are

letting Him shine through us in our actions.