Summary: Chapters 3–5

In Chapter 3, Hanna-Attisha explains that Batanzo has been Hanna-Attisha’s friend since they met in their high school’s environmental club, where the advisor, Roberta Magid, encouraged them to become activists. The club campaigned against an incinerator that caused pollution, and they won. 

Now, Batanzo explains that she saw a memo written by Miguel Del Toral, a colleague of hers at the EPA, which he purposely leaked. He says that Flint is not using corrosion control, a treatment for water to reduce corrosion and keep substances in the pipes from leaching into the water. In Flint, the pipes are made of lead, so since the new water source caused the pipes to corrode, there is lead in Flint’s water. Batanzo says that the MDEQ, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, isn’t testing correctly. Instead, they are “probably testing for the results they want . . . [to] underestimate the . . . lead in the drinking water.” She says utilities do it all the time.

Hanna-Attisha is shocked. She doesn’t think of herself as naive, having seen photographs of children murdered by Saddam Hussein (1937–2006), the president of Iraq when her parents fled. She knew that people and governments can be corrupt. She just didn’t expect it in Michigan.

As a pediatrician, Hanna-Attisha knows the risks of lead. It is a neurotoxin that disrupts brain development. There is no safe level of lead. Lead can lead to swelling of the brain, which causes a host of symptoms, from lowered IQ to headaches to ADHD to death.

Hanna-Attisha is distraught because she has told many patients that the water is safe. She based this on the fact that it was being tested, and the mayor of Flint, Dayne Walling, even went on television and drank it, to show it was safe. Residents had requested to go back to Detroit water, but the EM had said that was impossible because of the cost. Hanna-Attisha thinks, “Now that I know the truth, I can’t unknow it. I can only move forward.” Batanzo tells her that, based on her experience in DC, it could take years to fix the problem. Hanna-Attisha knows they don’t have years. Children can’t drink lead-filled water for one more day.

Batanzo says that, in DC, the government demanded proof of impact, meaning studies that showed that the lead in the water was impacting kids. Batanzo realizes that, since Hanna-Attisha oversees pediatric residents in a hospital in Flint, she would have access to kids’ blood-level tests. These are tests that children on Medicaid are required to have at one and two years of age. Batanzo says that proof of impact could be established through these tests.

In Chapter 4, Hanna-Attisha’s daughters request the story of Haji and the Birds, a famous story in their family. Hanna-Attisha, distracted, says she isn’t good at telling that story. Instead, she tells them a different story.

She says that Haji, whose real name was Khalil, lived in a neighborhood with many diverse people. He was an idealist who had great faith in people but less faith in religion. In fact, he didn’t go to church. He had three brothers, and they were all successful. Haji was director of Pepsi in Iraq.

The brothers opened a perfume factory. It burned down, and they were inconsolable. They didn’t think they could rebuild the factory. But then, employees started giving them money. Haji decided to rebuild, but he noticed that the priests from their church didn’t donate. In fact, one priest told them that the fire was God’s punishment for his arrogance. Haji stopped going to church. However, the priest was right. Haji did believe in people more than he believed in God. That is why he is always remembered fondly by those who knew him.

In Chapter 5, Batanzo sends Hanna-Attisha information and reports about the DC water crisis and, also, about the drinking water in Flint. There are several articles by Curt Guyette, the Detroit investigative reporter to whom Miguel Del Toral had leaked the memo. Guyette, in turn, had posted a news story including the memo, which exposed high lead levels in Flint, on several websites.

Del Toral had tested water in the home of LeeAnne Walters, whose children got a rash when they took baths. The whole family suffered from various symptoms, including abdominal pain and hair loss. One of the children had stopped growing. When city officials came to test, they said that she should be “flushing” the water, letting it run for several minutes before using it. Even with flushing, the sample came back high for lead. Water is considered to have high lead contact if it has 15 ppb (parts per billion). Walters’s water had 400 ppb.

The city had blamed Walters’s pipes. However, she had brand new PVC pipes. Walters did her own research and questioned whether the city used corrosion control. Then, she contacted Del Toral. Del Toral found that the pipes serving Walters’s home, not the ones in her home, were leaching lead. MDEQ’s testing procedures were faulty, and Flint wasn’t using corrosion control. However, the MDEQ and EPA first ignored Del Toral’s findings, then second-guessed them, painting him as an alarmist. Del Toral gave Walters his memo, and she gave it to Guyette.

Hanna-Attisha can’t believe this has happened. She wonders, “Why wasn’t anyone in government listening to them?” She suspects it is because Flint residents are largely poor and Black and they also don’t have democratically elected representation. She thinks about her patients: “Being a pediatrician . . . means being an advocate for your patients.”

Batanzo tells her to read up on the DC water crisis, and she learns about how Marc Edwards, an engineering professor, stumbled upon the corrosion problem caused by chloramine used to treat the water in DC. He reported his findings to the DC Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) and was rebuffed. Anyone who asked too many questions, including Batanzo, was either removed from the project or fired. Eventually, the Washington Post broke the story, but this was after there had been lead in the water for years. Marc Edwards used his own money and time to continue his research. He received a MacArthur “Genius Grant,” which helped pay for it. 

Children were affected for years. Part of the problem was that no one believed that lead in the water was a problem. Lead poisoning in children usually occurred from eating lead paint chips in old buildings. Children from the area may be experiencing a host of problems, including developmental delays. Adults also may have symptoms. But none of that was investigated in DC.

Hanna-Attisha serendipitously happens to have a meeting scheduled with a health department official who is in charge of lead for the county. She plans to invite some residents, who are aware of the problem. Then, she worries about what to do about patients like Nakala, who are already drinking the water.

Analysis: Chapters 3–5

The author introduces the theme of community values in this section by telling the story of her grandfather, Haji, and his perfume factory. Haji thought he was alone in the world and, for this reason, decided to close the perfume factory when it burned down. However, he soon found that he had many people who would stand behind him and help him to reopen the perfume factory. They felt so strongly about him and his business because he had supported them in the past. Haji believed in people, and this caused people to believe in him. Similarly, Hanna-Attisha feels alone in her effort to fix the water in Flint. Batanzo has painted a bleak picture of any help she’s likely to get from the government, and she expects resistance. However, she is starting to learn about other people who feel strongly about the issue, people like Miguel Del Toral, Marc Edwards, and Curt Guyette. At times, they will be outnumbered, but she isn’t alone.

Hanna-Attisha describes herself as not being naive because she saw the things that Saddam Hussein did to people, even children. Her parents didn’t attempt to sugarcoat it or paint a pretty picture. However, perhaps because of this, she may have an idealized picture of government in the United States, seeing it as the opposite of Iraq’s government in every way. In some ways, this is true, because the United States has a democratically elected government, not a dictator like Saddam Hussein. But elected officials aren’t all as selfless and uncorrupt as Hanna-Attisha would like them to be. Sometimes, they still cover up something that makes them look bad, and often, they will prioritize people who are likely to vote for them. In a situation like Flint, where the person in charge isn’t even elected, the people don’t have a voice, and the government is less inclined to care about their concerns.

The themes of corruption and injustice—and also of duty—dovetail in this chapter. Hanna-Attisha feels a strong sense of duty to her patients, who are often babies with no voice. As soon as she finds out about the bad water in Flint, she immediately wants to tell Nakala’s mother and all the mothers whom she assured that the water was good. She sees this as her duty as a pediatrician and her naive failure to investigate as a derogation of this duty. However, she will find out that many people who she would also believe have a duty to help people don’t do so.