Flint Michigan Water Crisis Ethics

Abstract
Once the hub of General Motors, Flint, Michigan is now a town in disarray due to contaminated drinking water. In spite of dozens of class-action and individual lawsuits, the crisis has yet to be resolved fully. The city of Flint and the State of Michigan are both responsible for using lead piping in the town infrastructure, which is the direct cause of the lead contamination. Research definitively shows lead contamination causes innumerable, irreversible, and often fatal health problems. The Kantian, utilitarian, and egoism ethical perspectives all show that Flint residents deserve justice.
Summary of Case
In 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan diverted the town’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The EPA and independent organizations like Virginia Tech tested the Flint River water and found “dangerous levels of lead” at point of contact such as in people’s homes (“Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts,” 2017, p. 1). Although the water diversion was designed to save the city $5 million, it will end up costing many millions more to fix the problem, which has caused twelve deaths and countless other health problems (Ravve, 2017). Lawsuits have been filed, and criminal charges against fifteen state and city officials have also been filed (Ravve, 2017). The Flint water crisis represents egregious errors from multiple ethical points of view.
Ethical Perspectives
Kantian
Deontological (Kantian) ethics are based on the ethical duty to fulfill basic, universal moral codes. Those codes include such straightforward ethics like refraining from harming others, respecting others, and helping others. Using the Kantian ethical perspective, the government has a clear and absolute obligation to restore Flint’s drinking water immediately. The city and state government have not acted in accordance with their ethical duties, given their initial diversion of the Flint supply to the contaminated river (“Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts,” 2017) and their lack of action taken to mitigate the crisis (Ravve, 2017; Moore, n.d.).
Utilitarian
Utilitarianism is based on the principle of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, or creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It is a consequentialist perspective. Utilitarian views would deride the Flint crisis, given that the residents of the entire town of 100,000 does not have access to clean drinking water and has been exposed to contaminants proven to cause major health problems (Ravve, 2017). Everything from fetal deaths, skin rashes and losing hair (Glenzain, 2017) to shortness of breath (Ravve, 2017) to Legionnaires Disease (Moore, n.d.) has been reported and/or confirmed since the 2011 diversion of the water supply.
Egoism
Ethical egoism places self-interest over either ethical principles or the common good. The ethical egoist approach is best exemplified by the Nestlé Corporation, which bottles water from an underground aquifer just a few hours away from Flint (Glenzain, 2017). Nestlé essentially privatizes a water supply that has been traditionally a public supply. Michael Moore (n.d.) also points out that stalwart Flint firm General Motors also took the ethical egotism approach by using clean water from Lake Huron for washing cars on the assembly line, while diverting the contaminated water from the Flint River to the public utility. From the perspective of city residents, on the other hand, ethical egoism would imply their individual right to access safe public drinking water.
Conclusion
From Kantian, utilitarian, and egoism points of view, the Flint water crisis is a tragedy. The only beneficiary of the crisis seems to be the Nestlé Company, which stands to profit from selling bottled water to residents. However, even ethical egoism would illustrate why the individual residents of Flint have a right to clean water, and why the government’s neglect of the contaminated water problem represents a gross infringement on human rights. Clean drinking water is in the utilitarian interests of the common good, and providing clean drinking water to all people represents an ethical duty from the Kantian point of view, too.




References
“Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts,” (2017). CNN. 28 Nov, 2017. https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/us/flint-water-crisis-fast-facts/index.html
Glenzain, J. (2017). Nestlé plays $200 a year to bottle water near Flint—where water is undrinkable. The Guardian. 29 Sept, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/29/nestle-pays-200-a-year-to-bottle-water-near-flint-where-water-is-undrinkable
Moore, M. (n.d.). 10 things they won’t tell you about the Flint water tragedy. But I will. https://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/
Ravve, R. (2017). Flint water crisis. Fox News. 3 Nov, 2017. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/03/flint-water-crisis-michigan-residents-still-unable-to-drink-tap-water-three-years-later.html