Courtesy Gina Luster
When I first call Flint Rising organizer Gina Luster, she’s too busy delivering water to talk.
Days earlier, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced an end to the program that distributes free bottled water to Flint residents, claiming that lead in the city’s water supply has been “below federal action levels” for two years.
Luster, a lifelong Flint resident, lost her job after getting sick from the drinking water. She’s found a new calling among the city’s activist “water warriors”—and recently announced plans to run as a commissioner in Genesee County.
I spoke with her this week by phone, just ahead of the fourth anniversary of the city’s water supply switch on April 25, 2014.
Q: How has the recent announcement to end free water distribution played out?
Gina Luster: We tried to get them to leave the water distribution sites open—there was still some monies allocated for that remaining. So the mayor, Karen Weaver, asked for a meeting with Governor Rick Snyder, to lobby him back to the water distribution sites, which would provide eight cases a day to each family in Flint for free. We shut down I-69, the main-drag freeway here, during rush hour and all of a sudden he had to time to meet with her. But he basically told her to get over it.
Q: So what’s the plan now for Flint residents?
Luster: I have a list every morning of people who call and inbox me. I talked to seventy-year-old lady who said she hasn’t had any water since Saturday. It’s freaking Tuesday!
I’ve reached out to a couple different organizations and they’re going to do bottle drives. The Concerned Pastors here in the Flint, a few of them stepped up to the plate. They’re going to pass out water for free.
Right now, my solution would be to get every household in the city those water dispensers, like Culligan makes, with five-gallon jugs on top.
You’re looking at a city that has been left like a ghost town from GM leaving. We’re at 42 percent poverty, a lot of people don’t have cars. There’s no way you can carry cases of bottled water on your shoulder on the bus.
Q: What do you think about the government’s claims that the water now meets standards?
Luster: The water could come from God, from the Heavens. As soon as it touches our infrastructure, it’s poison. The water may meet their guidelines, but you can’t pour clean water in a dirty cup and expect that you’re drinking clean water.
Q: How has the water crisis affected you personally?
Luster: I lost my job at the time [after getting sick]. I was making really good money as a district manager for a retail chain. I lost my teeth. I lost my hair. I had to have a full hysterectomy. I can no longer have kids. I was almost evicted from my home, my daughter had to leave a Catholic school and go to a charter school and she fell so much behind.
People have been divorced over this. People have died. We have cases of Legionnaires’ disease.
Q: Are there plans to mobilize?
Luster: We have some more plans in the pipeline. But when we did the freeway shutdown, a lot of the Caucasian suburbanites jumped down our throats. We got death threats. Now, we’re fighting amongst each other. It’s splitting the water warriors into this racial divide.
But I’m also happy that we have the opportunity with this anniversary to let the world know that it’s still not over and we're basically where we started.
Alexandra Tempus is associate editor of The Progressive.