Jan. 25, 2026

Bad Water, Kids, Big Money, and Lawyers

When water systems fail, the damage is not the same for everyone.
In Flint, the deepest harm lives in children’s brains.
In other cities, the damage is buried in pipes, mains, and hydrants.

In this episode, Arthur Busch examines what really gets damaged when public water systems fail—and why the law treats those harms very differently.

The episode opens in Flint, Michigan, with the story of Lee Anne Walters and her twin sons, who lost developmental skills after drinking lead-contaminated tap water. Their experience illustrates what lead exposure looks like up close: not statistics or charts, but children who had to relearn colors, numbers, and basic coordination, and who continue to struggle years later. This is the most enduring harm of bad water—damage carried inside a child’s body and brain for life.

From there, the episode draws a critical distinction between human damage and infrastructure damage. In Flint, the deepest injury is neurological and developmental, raising issues of justice, lifetime support, and accountability. In other cities, such as Miramar, Florida, and Greenville, South Carolina, the primary damage has been mechanical—corroded copper plumbing, failing ductile iron pipe, clogged mains, and compromised fire flow. Those cases focus on replacing pipe, repairing systems, and preventing the next failure.

The episode explores how these different kinds of harm move through the legal system. In Flint, class actions and civil rights claims seek compensation for children’s injuries, medical monitoring, special education needs, and property loss. In Miramar and Greenville, lawsuits target cities, engineers, and manufacturers over defective design, testing failures, and pipe performance, aiming to shift future repair costs away from ratepayers.

Along the way, the episode examines how water crises have become a litigation business model, with large contingency-fee cases driving accountability only after harm has already occurred. It also looks at how new Lead and Copper Rule requirements are reshaping evidence, documentation, and liability—often after cities have already gambled with aging infrastructure.

Ultimately, this episode asks a hard policy question: Is our system designed to protect the public, or mainly to manage liability after failure? Pipes can be replaced. Children cannot. The choices judges, regulators, and lawmakers make about prevention, accountability, and funding will determine whether future crises are stopped early—or simply paid for later.

This episode is part of The Mitten Channel, a Michigan-based podcast network examining law, public policy, and life in America’s industrial communities. A full transcript follows.

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Transcript

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00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:18.000
A mother named Leanne Walters watched her twin boys lose skills they already had learned.

00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:32.159
After drinking lead contaminated tap water, the boys had to be retrained on their colors, numbers, and ABCs, and they struggled with hand eye coordination and growth.

00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:40.000
According to CNN's reporting on her family, what we learned is the children were badly brain damaged.

00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:43.759
This is what brain damage from lead looks like up close.

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Not a statistic, but two children who are ahead of their age group suddenly failing and falling behind and fighting to catch up.

00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:01.359
Let me talk to you about two kinds of damage kids and pipes.

00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:04.640
Not all damage from bad water is the same.

00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:10.159
In Flint, the worst harm is inside children's bodies and brains.

00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:19.120
Long term studies now show higher risk, developmental delays, and worse school outcomes for exposed kids.

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In places like Miramar, Florida, in Greenville, South Carolina, the main injury has been to the plumbing and mains.

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Copper pipes leak, ductile, iron lines clog, hydrants might not flow when a fire starts.

00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:39.760
Both kinds of damage matter, but they call for different remedies.

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Human harm is about justice for the past and support that can last a lifetime.

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Mechanical harm is about replacing bad pipes, redesigning treatment, and preventing the next crisis.

00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:00.640
That split is where lawyers, engineers, and public officials all enter the story.

00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:08.479
Each group tends to focus on one kind of damage first, even though communities must live with both.

00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:12.240
Let's talk about how bad water becomes a business model.

00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:17.280
Once a water crisis hits, the money tends to move in familiar channels.

00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:33.759
In Flint, Michigan, residents and property owners brought large class action lawsuits against the state of Michigan, the city of Flint, local hospitals, and private engineering firms over lead contaminated water and ruined pipes.

00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:45.919
National Planus firms such as Cohen, Milstein, Waltz, and Luxembourg, and Sussman Godfrey stepped in on contingency fees.

00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:53.039
They fronted the cost of years of litigation in exchange for a share of any settlement or verdict.

00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:01.360
The main settlement with public defendants is about six hundred and twenty six million dollars, not a small sum.

00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:08.159
Later settlements with engineering firms push the total into the mid hundreds of millions.

00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:19.520
The publication Bridge Michigan reports that class counsel may receive one hundred and eighty million dollars in fees from the core deal.

00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:25.199
Some Flint residents have appealed, arguing that number is too high.

00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:32.960
The firms, the law firms responded that no one would have taken the case without that potential return.

00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:36.400
Similar patterns are now common in other water cases.

00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:47.759
In PFOS and other contamination suits, environmental firms openly market contingent representation to water systems and communities.

00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:55.759
They promise no upfront costs, unquote, while taking a percentage of any recovery.

00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.439
From one angle, this is the civil justice system just doing its job.

00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:08.719
When regulation fails, lawsuits force change and bring money back into damaged communities.

00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.840
From another angle, it looks like a business model built on failure.

00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:22.000
Real money often arrives only after pipes corrode and children are brain damaged and already harmed.

00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:27.600
Let's talk about the pipes, pipe damage and the lawsuits that are aimed at the future.

00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:32.560
Pipe damage cases show how law and engineering collide around prevention.

00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:46.560
In Miramar, Florida, residents and businesses have sued the city and its consultants over water from the Westwater Treatment Plant that allegedly caused pitting and pinhole leaks in copper plumbing.

00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:56.319
Case summaries explain that the plant used nanofiltration and reversed osmosis but did not properly remineralize the water.

00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:04.000
That left the water aggressive toward copper pipes and even some lab tests looked fine.

00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.279
The suit does not stop with City Hall.

00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:09.920
It also names engineering firms.

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Kimley Horn and Testing Company Applied Technical Services, accusing them of professional negligence and product related failures for not preventing damage to private plumbing.

00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:32.399
Families and business owners in Myanmar are not asking for special education services or lifetime medical care.

00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:39.920
They are asking for the cost of tearing out walls, replacing pipes, and repairing water damaged property.

00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:44.879
In Greenville, South Carolina, the public utility itself is the plaintiff.

00:05:45.040 --> 00:06:06.319
Greenville Water has sued the United States Pipe Company and Foundry over miles of ductile iron pipes that it says are eroding and clogging from the inside, threatening water quality and fire flow capacity, they claim.

00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:15.519
Public descriptions of the case say Greenville is seeking to recover what it paid for the pipe and the cost of removing and replacing it.

00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:21.759
The utility is also seeking punitive damages for deceptive trade practices.

00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.720
Here this legal fight is about protecting the future performance of the system.

00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:35.920
It's about making sure mains and hydrants work and shifting the bill for defective infrastructure away from the ratepayers.

00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.160
These cases are forward looking.

00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:40.480
They're about pipes, not brains.

00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:47.680
If Miramar and Greenville win, the main payoff will be better plumbing and stronger balance sheets.

00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:49.759
That matters for public safety.

00:06:50.000 --> 00:07:06.560
It does not pay by itself to repair what happened to children in Flint or Greenville or any other place where it can be shown children were damaged by the negligence or malpractice of professionals or municipalities.

00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.680
Human damage lawsuits are about the past.

00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:12.399
Flint sits on the other side of the scale.

00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:26.720
Researchers following Flint's children now report higher risk of developmental problems and lower test scores linked to crisis, confirming what parents have seen in their own homes and classrooms.

00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:36.399
The main resident class actions there seek money for children's medical monitoring, special education needs, and property damage.

00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:43.839
They also frame the crisis as a violation of constitutional rights and basic duties under environmental law.

00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:55.199
At the same time, Michigan and Flint sued their own engineering consultants, Lockwood, Andrews, and Newman, and Via Ola, North America.

00:07:55.439 --> 00:08:01.759
The state's complaint accuses them of professional negligence, public nuisance and fraud.

00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:12.560
It argues that they did not demand proper corrosion controls, and they did not give clear warnings about the Flint River water and helped make it worse.

00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:18.879
Once that discolored water and high lead readings appeared in drinking water in Flint.

00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:32.399
Those cases have ended in multimillion dollar settlements, including a more than fifty million dollar deal with one firm that denied liability while paying to resolve claims.

00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:36.320
These human damage lawsuits look backwards.

00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:50.159
They asked courts to put a price on injuries that have already occurred, lost IQ points and behavioral problems, anxiety, and the cost of support services that may be needed for decades.

00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:57.919
The law can write checks and structure funds, but it cannot restore the years a child lost to lead.

00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:02.639
Well, let's look at what judges and policymakers get to decide here.

00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:14.960
The decision judges and policymakers make each day about environmental rules, civil rights, and public safety have a direct impact on our communities.

00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:18.639
These choices shape the day-to-day lives of residents.

00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:22.320
This is where public policy dilemmas live.

00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:33.360
The law is good at counting broken things, feed a pipe, gallons of leaked water, hours of lawyer time, and projected construction costs.

00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:37.840
It is much worse at valuing a child's loss potential.

00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:42.159
Now federal lead and copper rules have changed.

00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:54.960
The new federal lead and copper rule improvements, along with Michigan's strict lead and copper rule, require water systems to map every service line.

00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:02.000
They must also tell customers if their service line is lead, galvanized, or unknown.

00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:07.039
Water systems are required to move toward full replacement on a set schedule.

00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:14.799
These requirements led to inventories, test results, notices, and internal emails.

00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:18.080
All of this becomes evidence whenever something goes wrong.

00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:27.600
In the next flint or Mirmar, lawyers will be able to show exactly what a utility and its consultants knew and when they knew it.

00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:31.039
But policy is still being made backward.

00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:38.240
It is often cheaper in the short term for a city to gamble on old pipes and minimal treatment.

00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:42.799
When that gamble fails, the cost moves into court.

00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:45.919
Residents sue cities and engineers.

00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:49.039
Businesses sue cities and consultants.

00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:56.720
Utilities sue manufacturers, insurers negotiate, judges approve settlements and award fees.

00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:04.000
Only then does serious money show up for the pipe replacement, filters, special education, and monitoring.

00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:07.600
Not all damages from bad water are equal.

00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:14.000
In Flint, the deepest wound is in children's brains and school records.

00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:21.759
In Miramar and Greenville, the main scars are in copper and iron, the leaks, clogs, and weakened systems.

00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:27.440
The law can send money to both kinds of harm, but it does not feel the same to us.

00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:32.000
When a city and a light pipe maker settle, both sides move on.

00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:35.440
A child with a brain damage does not.

00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:43.360
Judges and regulators, legislators sit in the middle of this triangle, families, businesses, and governments.

00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:57.840
Their job is to decide how much of the money and attention goes to caring for the kids who are already hurt and how much goes into ripping out the pipes that could hurt the next generation.

00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:09.600
The choices they make will tell us whether this is mainly a system for managing liability or a system for protecting the public.

00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:15.679
Meanwhile, families like Leanne Walters live with the results.

00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:27.360
CNN's story on her twins describe how the boys who once knew their letters and numbers had to relearn basic skills.

00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:33.519
They still struggle with growth and coordination for years after the worst of the Flint water crisis.

00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:37.840
To say that the water crisis is over is completely wrong.

00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:50.399
Long term research now shows that many Flint children face similar challenges in school and development long after the pipes begin to be replaced.

00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:57.279
For then, the difference between damage to kids and damage to pipes is not abstract.

00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:01.039
One can be swapped out with a backhoe.

00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:06.159
The other is carried in on a child's mind for life.

00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:08.879
Thank you for joining us today.

00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:18.320
We appreciate you listening to our essays, and we like to ask one thing of you that you would support us and to continue this work.

00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:25.039
So in doing so, you can subscribe to our podcast, radiofreeflint.media.

00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:32.240
You can go and subscribe and ask to join our newsletter at Substack, which is the Mitten channel.

00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:39.440
And you can also send us notes or emails at the addresses in the show notes.

00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:45.279
We appreciate again your support and your attention to this, and let's all say a prayer for these children.

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Thanks again.

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This is Arthur Bush.

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Goodbye for now.