The Scary Warning Signs State and City Governments are Missing About Lead Contamination

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Originally posted in February 2016.

I don't currently represent any elected officials, but in the past I've been retained by city government offices for communications projects, I've been part of multiple-practitioner external PR teams advising the mayor of a major American city, and I've provided both formal and informal crisis management support to everyone ranging from state representatives to local city council members.

The combined fingers and toes of every Flint resident couldn’t tally the lessons to be learned from that city's lead poisoning disaster, but the standout issue for me is the deafening silence of state and local government in dozens of other American cities that could at any time face a major lead contamination media crisis. What are they waiting for??

Now is the time for city and state government leaders around the country to be proactive about lead contamination crisis planning.

Below, I offer my run down of the Flint tragedy, followed by five action items that can be undertaken by politicians in cities facing similar (or worse) issues. If you provide communications support to a government office — whether you are a consultant, agency staffer or government employee — consider recommending these vetted and viable strategies.

Help is finally on the way - for Flint

Humanitarian support is flowing to beleaguered and lead-poisoned Flint, MI, primarily in the form of clean water donations. With the nation now watching, disaster management protocols and long-term plans to mitigate the contamination are finally being discussed.

In the meantime, the city’s nearly 100,000 residents continue to suffer from the effects of lead in their water supply, and the city will be under a state of emergency until the water is considered safe.

There is also a whiff of justice in the air: the state and federal failures in leadership that exacerbated the issues in Flint – including nearly two years of finger-pointing, lies, shifting crisis communication priorities and shameful buck-passing – may actually result in criminal charges against government officials.

This mobilizing and assignment of blame does nothing for the families already managing devastating health damage – like children with irreversible developmental delays – or those who lost loved ones to Legionnaires’ disease. However, every lead-free pipe and upgraded water treatment facility is a reduction of future risk for the families of Flint.

But that's just Flint.

Most major American cities have hazardous lead levels

Pittsburgh’s KDKA reports that 18 cities in Pennsylvania have higher levels of lead exposure than Flint, MI. Eighteen.

Vice.com research suggests that most major U.S. cities - from Washington, DC and New Orleans to Brooklyn and Philadelphia - have hazardous levels of toxic lead, and that children are getting contaminated literally every day:

The main thing we know about non-catastrophic lead in the United States is that the biggest problem is inner-city soil contaminated by decades-old gasoline. Gas went unleaded in the mid-1970s, but all the old lead burned in the past was dumped into the air and then fell back to earth. The tiny lead particles don't biodegrade. They mix in with the soil, get tracked into houses, and, most of all, end up on the hands and toys of little kids, who have a marked tendency to stick anything and everything into their mouths, leading to the ingestion of lead.
This lead is everywhere, but it's most heavily concentrated in places that were close to a lot of vehicle traffic during the leaded gasoline days — in other words, the centers of big cities.
Matthew Yglesias - It's not just Flint — every major American city has hazardous amounts of lead hurting kids, Vox.com

How not to solve your city's lead-contaminated water issues

Washington lawmakers amended the Energy Policy and Modernization Act in an effort to help families in Flint that have been exposed to lead. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed legislation that would devote several hundred million dollars to replace Flint’s water delivery and treatment infrastructure and remove lead contamination from the water supply. The good news for residents is that the plan was well received by both Democrats and Republicans. The predictable, bureaucracy-riddled bad news? The plans won’t likely be put to a vote until June.

National media hasn’t been spared from criticism either; the story quietly broke in Spring 2014, but the roots of the Flint issue reach back to 2011. It was 2015 before it received the type of coverage that informs the masses and moves officials to action.

Revised disaster management plans, transparency in communications, and permanent decontamination efforts (whenever they actually happen) will accelerate the recovery from this obscene chapter of environmental racism and classism.

What's a Mayor or Governor to do?

If you represent elected officials, consider advising them to do the following five things:

Rise to the occasion: Disclose as much information as possible and appropriate about local contamination challenges. This doesn’t mean the mayor and governor of Toxic Lead City/State should hold a series of slapdash, CYA press conferences or issue everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "air cover" statements. However, getting ahead of the problem with strong crisis communication plans, achievable decontamination goals and clear timelines are important steps in reassuring residents and other stakeholders.

Be accessible: Simply put, don't hide from journalists. They have a job to do, and being evasive forces them to dig deeper than necessary and connect dots out of context. The reports and studies I noted weren’t surreptitiously delivered to me in a damp parking garage by a man in a trench coat demanding code words. The news coverage of the Flint crisis made me wonder how my city stacks up for lead poisoning risk, and I got to Googlin'. These articles are out there for anyone to read. Believe me when I say that reporters have already been assigned to investigate lead contamination levels in their cities and towns, and they will have questions for the politicians on your client roster.

Tell the truth: The quickest path through a media crisis is to be as transparent as is practical. Timing of announcements should of course be approached pragmatically, and content of announcements must satisfy legal disclosure thresholds, but obfuscation or inconsistent explanations come back with a vengeance.

Have a heart: Be compassionate in media statements and public appearances. Acknowledge the health and emotional difficulties that affected parties may be having.

You can say that again: This is a crisis communications cliché, but officials have to be prepared to “repeat the message until it is heard.” This can be aggravating, especially in the face of negative press. Preparation doesn’t mean stubbornly clinging to the same three talking points, either. Spokespersons must know how to communicate convincingly, prioritize key messages on the fly, and have the patience to drive points home frequently.

Inspiration and Resources

It's not difficult to find articles about poorly managed environmental disasters, or even environmental disasters that could have received broader media coverage.

However, it does take a bit of digging to identify comprehensive overviews of incidents that were handled well. I would like to believe the reason is that good crisis communication protocols were followed — that those situations were planned for, contained quickly and received minimal media coverage.

Several years ago, Forbes published Manage Your Environmental Crisis Before It Happens, an article by Stephen Linaweaver and Brad Bate of strategy and management consulting firm GreenOrder. It's a quick read with solid tips for being proactive and exhibiting strong leadership in a sustainability crisis. Enjoy.