Flint woes pain Young
Water issue breaking his heart, hometown
The water crisis continues in Flint, Mich., with lawsuits and governmental fighting. At a municipal meeting Wednesday night, protestors crunched plastic water bottles to signal their displeasure.
To James Young, however, the issue is simple: The problem of lead in the public water supply was allowed to get out of hand and needs to be corrected. Now.
“I can’t believe we haven’t fixed it yet,” the Celtics swingman and Flint native said last week. “It’s tough, but we need to do something ASAP. I can’t believe people have let it carry on this long.”
Last offseason, Young traveled home to help pass out bottled water to residents, and he’s been stunned at what he’s seen on his visits.
“It’s heartbreaking when I go there,” Young said. “There are a lot of things going through my mind when I’m there. There’s so much they still need to take care of, and it’s something we need to do, like, right now. This is bad.
“When I was there giving bottles of water to the families, I could see the smiles on people’s faces, but it was tough. It’s very tough to live like that. I don’t know how people are surviving like that. It’s just heartbreaking.”
Unsafe levels of lead were introduced into the area’s system when in a 2014 cost-cutting move the city switched water supplies from the Detroit Water Authority to the Flint Water System, which took in water from the Flint River.
Officials failed to warn residents that the aging service lines presented lead risks and didn’t correct the matter, creating a major health problem for residents.
“I mean, when I stopped by some of the houses and looked at the water, you could smell it,” Young said. “It was very bad. I can’t believe they would let it get that bad to where it is right now.
“It didn’t feel like we were in the U.S. It was just so bad.”
Asked if he believed such a problem would have occurred in one of the nicer suburbs rather than Flint with its majority African-American population, Young said, “I don’t think it would have, but they just need to stop it now. That’s all I can say.”
‘It’s heartbreaking when I go there. . . . There’s so much they still need to take care of, and it’s something we need to do, like, right now.’ — JAMES YOUNG (right) On the Flint water crisis