The Flint water crisis a year later shows little progress

Some progress has been made in Flint, the city is back on Detroit water millions of dollars have been earmarked.

But the city's water is still not safe to drink but for the average Flint resident, it does not seem like a year has made much of a difference.

It has been a year since Flint became a household name for all the wrong reasons. And while most homes here have filters to keep the lead out of their water, something else just might be getting in it.

"The problem is now we've developed 24,000 bacteria per milliliter - that's about that much," said Keri Webber.

Webber is just one of thousands in Flint affected by the water crisis. She learned about the bacteria after Wayne State University, University of Michigan and Michigan State University conducted joint water testings of homes in Flint.

"'During the first sampling date July 8, the HPC count in the first flush leaving your filter was over a 100 times higher than the bacteria count entering your filter,'" said Webber, reading from a letter with the study results. We saw this pattern in 60 percent of the houses sampled in Flint during July.

It's another hurdle in Flint's road to recovery. But there has been some progress in holding those who may be responsible accountable.

Attorney General Bill Schuette's investigation into the water crisis has led to criminal charges for nine state workers. In the meantime class action lawsuits on the matter are in limbo.

"Right now the defendants in the case are challenging the legal basis of the lawsuit are filing repetitive motions seeking dismissal of the case," said attorney Michael Pitt.

Pitt, an employment and discrimination lawyer, is one of a handful of attorneys representing roughly 6,000 Flint families in cases against the state and the city of Flint.

"It won't be until sometime next year that the judge will make some rulings on the current motions to dismiss," Pitt said.

FOX 2 asked Senate minority leader and Flint resident Jim Ananich about what difference a year made in Flint. While state lawmakers set aside $300 million for city's recovery, Ananich says a lot of it has yet to make it here, and that meaningful legislation has stalled and bi-partisan efforts in Lansing have seemingly gone nowhere.

"Trust if anything has gotten worse," he said. "We had the Flint bipartisan, bicameral-both house and senate committee. It's been close to six months since that's ended and no report has come out.

"There is oversight over the Department of Environmental Quality like we used to have, there are lowering the lead levels to acceptable lead levels. There are dozens if not hundreds, of pieces legislation introduced by Republicans, Democrats, Senate members, House members that's just waiting."

And so are Flint residents like Keri Webber. She is still waiting for clean water, waiting for justice.

FOX 2: "Is your life any different now than it was a year ago?"

"No," Webber said. "Except for the fact that we have filters and we have bottled water, no,"

Dr. Mona Attisha, released a statement about the one year anniversary since the story got out.  Attisha is the pediatrician who discovered the elevated lead levels in Flint children's blood which helped break the story and contradicted the state's talking points.

"Our Flint children deserve every opportunity to be healthy and successful. Although the water in Flint is still not safe to drink and we still have yet to garner congressional support, we are working continuously with local agencies, organizations and community groups in Flint to further ensure that our children are afforded the interventions to overcome this population-wide exposure to lead."

FOX 2 reached out to the spokespeople for Mayor Karen Weaver and Gov. Rick Snyder and received no comment from either.