Flint water crisis reaches 4 year anniversary

FLINT, Mich. (WJBK) - Flint officials flipped the switch four years ago Wednesday, taking the city off of Detroit's supply and choosing to draw water from the Flint river instead.

The goal was to cut costs, but the move triggered a city-wide health crisis with lead contaminated water flowing into people's homes. Now the problem is far from over.

Chants and repeated calls for justice, with 12 dead and thousands poisoned. The people of Flint are still shouting.

"Makes me feel proud that people are still standing up for their city," one protester said.

There were protests in Lansing on Wednesday morning, just a couple of weeks after Governor Rick Snyder ordered the state to stop providing bottled water to the people of Flint, saying testing showed the tap water is now safe to drink.
 
It's been a long four years. The switch to the Flint River yielded smelly discolored tap water, later determined to be responsible for leaching lead from the pipes in people's homes, poisoning thousands while also leading to dozens of cases of Legionnaires disease. Twelve of those of were fatal.

Attorney General Bill Schuette has charged 15 people in connection with the water crisis, falling short of prosecuting Snyder, who was grilled on Capitol Hill by a congressional committee in March.

Back in 2016, he promised to make things right.

"I'm going back to Flint tomorrow to roll up my sleeves and keep working that issue," he said.

The governor says he has done just and thousands of lead pipes have been replaced.

"Bottom line is I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired," a protestor said Wednesday.

But in Flint on this anniversary, the people say thousands more still need to be replaced and the state hasn't done enough.

"He promised he would fix it - it's not fixed - it's the same story four years later," another protestor said.