Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthufoundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More informationt macfound. Org. The Ford Foundation woing with visionaries on the frtlines of social change worldwide. Fordfoundation. Org. Additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, commted to excellence in journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust. Supporting trustworthyna josm that informs and inspires. And by theur frontline lism fund, wi major support from jon and jo ann hagler. And additionupport from koo and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation. There is noing more valuable than water. R. Bl and michigan ised to be surrounded by more fresh water than anywhere else on the planet. Theyre calling it the dawn of a new era, miles of pipeline transporting fresh water to three counties and two cities, but Officials Say. Narrator the idea was to turn all that water into money. A new peline could bring economic opportunity, could create regional cooperation, and it could be, you know, an affordable, healthy source of, f of wat our city, longterm. Arrator the proposed s pipeline wposed to carry lowcost, highquality water from lake huron to businesses and homes throhout eastern michigan, including the city of flint. The 274 million project shou be completed in early 2016. And it was a way for this community to take advantage of the Natural Resources that its surrounded by, and that couldou give, you ow, our region a competitive advantage. Narrator instead, th pipeline set in motion a series of events that led to an unprecedentepublichealth crisis in flint. Its not safe to drink the. Water in flint, michigan narrator the exposure of thousands of children to leadtainted water would become a national outrage. Hs. Water has been poisoned with lead for mo i think about this every single day, and i still try to figure out what i could have seen or done or asked, you know, diffently. Nearly a thousand homes still have Dangerous Levels of lead i. The wa but i just didnt er imagine that there would be a failure at ery lel of government with something as t basic safety of Drinking Water. Narrator and oversdowed by the lead psoning was another problem with the water. Pe mosle outside of flint look at the lead issue as the main issue. But the killer has been legionnaires, a people dont know that. At two more have been linked to the legionnaires disease outbreak. That was the one that i think they tried to hide the most. Thats the one i still dont think that they want people outside of flint to know. Narrator ir flint, they still line up for bottled water. Oh, my gosh. Are you serious . Narrator jacqui mcbride started coming here after her daughter got sick with legionnaires diseas a severe and potentially deadly form of pneumonia. An i dont wthe same thing to happen to me. I refuse to drink inom the faucet. Oo jay, you should have been here a long time ago. On come on up, come on up. Hey there. Arrator the legionnai oureak hasnt received much attention outse of flint, despite being one of the large in u. S. History. But frontline has investigating the outbreak and how state and local officialsed fao stop it. For the past two years, producers abby ellis aayla ruble ha been repoing in flint. Ne, two, three cases of legionnaires. And theyre a couple of blocks froeach other. Th narrator with their colleague, reporter jacob carah, t team reewed thousands of pages of Health Records d government documents; spent months following the legal effort to hold people accountable; and interviewed cal officials, residents, infectiousdisease specialists, and others to trace the story of the deadly outbreak, which began more than a year before the world even t knhere was a water crisis in flint. The outbreak startedn june 2014, when the first known20 patienshowed up at a local hospit. He was 54 years old, suffering from what appeared to beeu nia. So, for that particular patient, going to the hospital as soon as they had, you know, high fevercough, diarrhea, you know, they know that somethings really wrong they order a special diagnostic test, which isnt routinely done, d then they know its legionnaires disease, and its rt of a race against time to save that patient. Narrator janet stout is one of the nations foremost legionnaires specialists and advised officials in flint on how to respo r to the disease,by which is caused nhaling water droplets conminated with bacteria. Whats distctive aboutiv legionnaires disease is i severity. Almost all cases are admitted to the intensivecare unit. Lee other thing thats unique about legionellaonella bacteriais that its in war. , you can control the organism in water, you can completely prevent the disease. Narrator three days later, another man was diagnosed with legionnaires at a hospital in flint. In the week that followed, three more cases at three differt hospitals wes reported to the state and county Health Departments. Nt because its a reportable dise e going to one centralized locaontiwhich is state and county reporting, thei people rng. At the Health Department receiving this are going, ive not seen five cases in four weeks, ever. So now you start to see a pattern. This is not normal. Narrator by midsummer, more than a dozen legionnres cases had been confirmed, rm many as Genesee County would typically see in a yinr. But most people ine lint knew nothing about the growing outbak, inuding jacqui mcbride, whose daughter jassmin was ungest known victim. I walked into that room, all i see is this machine, these tubes, my daughter laying theree stiff, you know, just stiff. The doctor asked, he said, have you heard of legionnaire . And im, like, no. D what the hell is that . Narrator jassmine was 26 and had diabetes, wh, h made her vulnerable. She was admitted to the intensivecare unit. The first doctor kept saying, well, we dont know if shes ing to make it or not. I didnt want to hear that. I d think the same day she was there, somebody ssed, maybe next to he and had the same thing she had,mena legies. Narrator scientists wevesp en to who have examined the legionnaires outbreak point to a fateful decision, months before jassmine got sick, to switch flintsater to a nesource. The first dirt turn for the pipeline, ladies and gentlemen crews break ground on the karekaondi Water Pipeline. 74 miles of largediameter pipeline will stretch. Pe narrar for decades, flint one of the poorest cities in america had bought its water from droit. Is expected to cost about 230 million. Narrator water from the proposed pipeline was supposed to be cheaper. Thank you mr. Councilman and the rest of the council. Countys top waterialiae stressed when heame to flint. Once its completed, therewi be severalmilliondollar Cost Reduction to all of the communities inlved. Saw a great opportunity fo this Poor Community to save they would have a savings of two million their first year from what they were spending just to purchase water. Keep it on file so that we can begin the committe. Narrator flints city council eventually backed the plan, but officially, they had littli say, because, at the time, the nearly bankrupt citys finances were controllede bytate, which went ahead and approved the pipeline. And swe didnt have control of the water, the decisions nothing. Narrator to help finance its all, flitateappointed managers had another plan. It has been five decades nce flint used theiver for Drinking Water. Today, they opened up the gates to start that process again. Narrator instead of staying on the detroit waterupply while the pipeline was beingbu t, the city would temporarily get its water from the flint river. Until a new Water Pipeline is finished from lake huron. Narrator that cision without a vote from the city council would force the cityun to activate an old watetreatment plant that had barely been used in half a century. In i cer still expected that the same safeguards would be in place no matter at the drinkingwater source was. Narrator but inside the plant, weve learned t lt a foreman named Matt Mcfarland was having concerns. He said, were not ready. He said the plant wasnt ready. N the funding just wasnt there. The staffing wasnt there. There was a lot that would need to be done, and it would take time. Narrator mcfarland died in 2016, but while working at the water plt, he regularly confidedn his sistja petrla. This is the first time shes spoken publicly about her brothers concerns. He would call me, a he would just be so upsetand he would leave me messas that wereweust frantic, like, to a, you have to ll me right away. Please call me right away. I mean, he knew that they narrator as the deadline approached, mcfarland expressed his concerns to his supervisors. One of them, mike glasgow, had concerns, too. He wouldnt speak to us, but in an email, he told state were to open on schedule, it will be against my direction. Later told investigators hest ver received a response. The city right now is just testing and treating this war. Theyre not using it in the Drinking Water yet. They hope to start doing that th the next few days. Arrator witopening of the plant just hours awayho petrella began texting friends at her bthers behest that the water wasnt safe. I remember specifically the day before theactually flipped the switch, he called me, and he said, tonja, contact everyone that you kw in flint, anybody you care about, and tell them, do not drink the water. this is our moment three, two, one. He said, ts not safe. Were t ready, he said, and people are going to die. To herelint heres to flint narrator within weeks, nhe problems mcfarland had been worried about began to appear. No flint igetting its water from the flint river. Its not sitting well with somei residents and sses. And this is what is coming out of the tap. At s brown, has a bad odor. I was covering Flint City Hall at the time. It was a regular sight, like, every week, someonwas bringing in a bottle of water that was discolored. People were telling me as a councilperson that they was breaking out with rash. We cannot drink the water, we cant cook with the water, letal e brush our teeth. That was real quick after the switch, some of those signs. The city says residents wont. Notice a change in quali the message we keep getting back over and over and over again is, its really n anything to worry about. Flint city Officials SayDrinking Water from e flint river is now safe to drink for the entire city. It was, not a problem, not a problem, not a problem. Narrator but what most of flint didnt know at the time was that the state hadnt required the plant to protect the citys water pipes fm corrosion. They soon became a breeding ground for legionella, and people were getting sick. Throughout the summer of 2014, cases of legionnaires disease reptppearing, reaching o 30 by the fall. Boctober of 2014, there would have been enough information to really understand that there was a significant problem in flint. That would be considered a large outbreak, and that would be an investigatn at wed wa to do right away. Narrator the cnty Health Department had started looking into the problem. And in emails, state officials were already speculating that flints new water supply may be to blame and worrying that word might get out. Ngverybody that knows anyt about legionnaires diseasee knows its in ter. Soou go and test the water. And then you disinfect the wate thats whats been done virtually everywhere else, except in flin narrator no one from the state Health Department would be interviewed we camera. Outbreak could not bed us the definitively connected to the water because, she acknowledged, the water was never tested. 40 confirmed cases ofhere were legionnaires, and three peoplep had died. Jassne mcbride had been lucky. After three months in the hospital, she was able to go home. When i got out, i h to learhow to walk, talk, eat. I meg rebornll over again. The oxygen, youre on that all the time, or do you ever geto take it. . Sometimes i take it off just to see myself, but im on it all the time. At yeah. Narrator here with legionnaires left her heart and lungs weaken her kidneys were severel damage when we met her in 2he healthy though to giblet wasnt for one. You jus jhad dialysis just now, right . Your lungs are clear. Ou theyve clearethe fluid. Narrator her doctor, marcus zervos, had en treating a ronic skin infection that her weakened immune system couldnt control. My goal with you is to try to get those wounds healed up s that you can get your transplant. Mmhmm. What were doing with this isti uetirafting. Im really happy with them. They are doing a lot better. Im ecstic. You know, if i can get them healed over a little bit more, im ing to get you an appointment with those transplant doctors. Narrar while jassmine was recovering back in early 2015, the head of michigans Health Department, nick lyon, met with e of his epidemiologists and washown this graph of the legionnaires outbreak. The epidemiologist noted that it coincidewith the switch of the water supply. Lyon asked to be kept informed. Neighbors in flint joined ntgether today to rally ainst the citys treat. Narrator residents were still unaware of the outbreak. Br city Officials Say the water is sd theres no need to worry. Narrator but at the suggestion of the state healthat departcounty officials drafted an alert to medical providers. It was never sent, accordingo internal emails, becse the person in charge wasnt there that day. Instea just 15 people were notified by email. N no onee county or state Health Departments would explain why the alert never went out. Its totally unacceptable. There was no notification sent to the medical society. So that. chuckles im trying not to be profane, but thats utter rubbi narrator around th time, county Health Officials trying to confirm if the water was the source of the outbreak reached out to dr. Stout. Ac a i said, call the cente for Disease Control and prevention. They will come, they will do the testing that needs to be done. And i though. Done. Narrator emails show the county health departnt wrote to the cdc right away, saying they were now up to 47 cases of legionnaires disease and needed help. But state Health Officials had a very diffent rponse. They told the cdc they didnt need its help. If they did, theyd get into h. The cdc persisted, saying they felt a sense of urgency. Itas one of the largest outbreaks in years, they said, s and they recommended a full investigation. Looking through the emails and starting to see how things were evoing, that kind of resource on the ground boots on the ground, particularly helping the Genesee County e alth department, which was understaffed at me would have been a game changer for the legionla outbreak. Narrator but t call tocd thnever came, even as more top officials became aware of the problem. Though Governor Rick Snyder would insist hstdidnt know about the outbreak until 2016, em15ls show that by march 20 at least three of his aides and twof his cabinet members had been told about it. And into the summer, it continued. Three cases in may, seven more in june, 13 in july, 13 in august. Tick, tick, tick, case after case afterase. Theres another one, theres another one, there ather one. Confirmed cases in the year and a half followinghe water switch. 12 people had died. It i a ver abig idemic, cs off tof largest epide legionnaires disease that we know of. We heard rumors that there were outbreaks of legionellaat e could not confirm, and we werent getting any communication from our count Health Department, definitely no information from the statert dent. They were strangely silent. El ding now, a publichealth emergency. People in flint being told not to drink. Narrator but once high lead lels in the water system became public in late 2015,15 ate officials had to confront the ct that the water switch was having grave consequences. Levels of lead in kids blood has risen. T ink that really was a pivotal point,here people paid attention to a community that just used common sense a knew water shouldnt be bt wn and rustylooking. State Officials Say their testing shows lead in the water. Narrator with the crisis building, the governor ordered the city to stop using the flint river and return to detroit water. Wi in mths, snyder and his top officials would address the legionnaires outbreak. An aidto the governor called an Environmental Engineering professor at wayne state unersity. He said that the governor was about to go onstage to announce a gionnaires disease outbreak, and he wanted to know whether or not i could determine if the chae in the water supply was the cause of the legionnaires disease. And i basically told him that i thought i could pull together ao team t at this, but that i would have to make some calls. And he said, no, no, no. The governor is going on in, like, 15 minutes. Uti need an answer in 15 m. Nk well, tou for coming today. Im going to share information th has been sharsh with th Healthcare Community the past, but hasnt really be put outo the public. Over the course of 2014 and 2015, 20 saw a spi in legionnaires disease. I believe the nuers for the preceding years, before 2014, we had six cases, 11 cases, 13 a case eight cases. In 2014, we had 45 cases. And then in 2015, there were 42 cases. Id been writing about flint veter for more than a year, and i heard anything about legionnaires disease until th aygovernor went on tv that thank you. Ou. Nartor the repubcan governor was joined by the states top Health Officials nick lyon and the chief medical executive, dr. Eden wells. Most of the time, what its going to manifest is as a pneumonia. Um this pia wou not. They say, we cant conclud that the water was the source of legionnaires disease in