Flint Mom Shares the Heartbreak of Giving Her Kids Poisoned Water

Most of us don't think twice about hopping in the shower or running a load of dishes in the dishwasher. But for Flint, Michigan, resident Melissa Mays, 37, these daily acts are fraught with anxiety and fear.

The city, where 41 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, has made national headlines in the past few months as shocking details have emerged about levels of copper, lead, and other materials in its water. These levels have had a disastrous effect on Mays and her family.

To save money, the city of Flint switched its municipal water source in April 2014 from the Detroit water system to the Flint River. Mays and her family began developing rashes; their hair started falling out. Now Mays strategizes, trying to minimize her exposure to the water. When her boys (11, 12 and 17) take baths, they can only use warm water -- never hot -- and they must use a cup to rinse the shampoo away. There's no lingering, and definitely no soaking.

Mays started talking to her neighbors, and she realized that other people were having the same issues. In January 2015, Mays formed Water You Fighting For, a grassroots organization dedicated to making Flint reconnect to the Detroit water system. She told The Stir her story.

The Stir: When did you first notice that something was wrong with the water?

Melissa Mays: It was about July 2014, after the switch [from the Detroit system to a new consortium, using water from the Flint River in the interim]. Our water started coming through yellow. The kids would come and find me, running and screaming: "Mom, the water is yellow!" Sometimes it smelled like rotten eggs, sometimes dirt. Sometimes bleach. Depended on what day it was.

Then the cat started throwing up and losing fur. You'd pet him and his fur would come off in clumps right in your hand. He used to be bunny-soft, but now, his fur is rough and coarse. Same thing with my sons. Their hair went from being long and silky to rough and wiry. That's caused by copper, which strips the collagen from your system. Copper, lead, chromium, aluminum, and tin, that's what we have in our water. Around the fall of 2014, my hair started falling out, too.

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