Ensuring Safe Drinking Water

Floor Speech

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Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, this weekend I visited Flint, Michigan, where I met with neighbors and residents, one of whom was named Joyce.

Joyce is one of the more than 100,000 residents in Flint who have and continue to endure a life-threatening water crisis in their city which has gone on for years. Like too many families in Flint, Joyce's family has suffered incredible loss due to the criminal contamination of Flint's water.

Joyce's son's name is Joseph. He was a father of three, and as any of us would, he believed that the water that he drank, bathed, and cooked with--the water that he gave to his children--was clean. He had no reason to believe otherwise.

But after the city of Flint changed its water source from Detroit's water system to Flint River in 2014 to cut costs, Joseph began to develop rashes and bacteria that ate away at his flesh forcing him to tape his skin together on his face and on his back with band-aids.

It was so bad that his doctors kept asking him if he had traveled to a Third World country recently. Where in the world had he been that had caused his organs to deteriorate as rapidly as they were?

Joseph died leaving behind his three children; his family; and his mother, Joyce, who continues to keep his memory alive.

Joseph's story is tragic and heart-wrenching, and the sad part is that this is not a one-off case. Samples of drinking water from Flint found 13,000 parts per billion of lead in the community's water, which is nearly 900 times higher than the EPA's maximum limit of 15 parts per billion.

Scientific evidence shows that this lead contamination has killed at least a dozen people in Flint from Legionnaires' disease. It has deteriorated the short- and long-term health of tens of thousands of people in the community, including at least 9,000 children under the age of 6.

It has created ripple effects causing fetal death and lower fertility rates that continue to have an impact on those who are affected and will continue to have an impact on this community for generations to come.

Now, there are other cases of other illnesses such as cancers and things that are not even being tracked but are likely related to this contaminated water, and that will continue.

It has been over 1,500 days since this crisis began and the people of Flint today still do not have clean water. Understandably, they don't trust their government to tell them the truth after they have been told the water is clean and safe time and again, only to show that it is not and people continue to get sick.

These are the same officials who decided to put cost savings over human lives who later reassured the community that the water was safe when they knew that it wasn't. Now, despite this heartache, death, and destruction, those responsible in local, State, and Federal Government have not been held accountable for creating and perpetuating this horrifying crisis.

Poisoning over 100,000 people through their water is criminal, yet not a single person has been charged. Not only that, but the State has declared the water in Flint to be lead-free and has shut down the only bottled distribution facility in the city. The need is still there, so we have churches and volunteers in the city who are coming together and cobbling together a means to distribute bottled water in whatever way that they can, taking care of each other, and demanding accountability for those responsible for this devastation.

Understandably, they feel they have been forgotten, that their voices are not being heard, and that they have been left behind. All they are asking is that this country--our country--hear their personal stories and shine a light on the problems that still continue.

We understand that this is not a problem isolated to Flint, Michigan, but is a problem that faces communities all across the country. We know that Flint is not alone. With the aging and crumbling infrastructure in this country, we know that too many of our communities don't have safe water to drink. We need Federal investment in our country's dangerously dilapidated water infrastructure now.

In my home State of Hawaii alone, it is estimated that we will need over $1 billion in drinking water investment over the next 20 years just to ensure that our people have safe water to drink.

I am a co-sponsor of the WATER Act which will make these critical improvements to our drinking water and wastewater services, replace old, lead-ridden pipes, and stop sewage overflows and other problems that are contaminating our national water infrastructure.

We must hold those responsible for the poisoning of Flint accountable for the lives that they have ruined. Along with passing the WATER Act into law, we need to expand water testing in high-risk areas. We need to send a message to this country that we stand together. Water is life. We cannot survive without it.

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