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Antonia Belton: National Water Quality Issues, South Carolina

As told by Antonia Belton
Hopkins, South Carolina

Story Narrative:

A girl with black, curly hair and brown eye glasses wears a white blouse with a ruffled collar.

In collaboration with Congaree National Park and Friends of Congaree Swamp, students like Antonia Belton at Lower Richland High School in Hopkins, South Carolina, prepared stories about water as part of the region's presentation of "Water/Ways," an exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program.

Antonia Belton (00:06): Have you ever thought about how you treating the environment? This is your environment. This is a place where you have to live for many years along. Water quality is a central part of why you should keep the environment clean. Do you know what water quality is? Water quality is the condition of water, including chemical, physical, and biological characteristics. Did you know this could potentially affect your health if the water wasn't up to standard?

Video (00:28): It was burning, I could hardly breathe. My skin's all rashed up and I'm furious about it. If you want me to be happy, give me some fresh water.

Antonia Belton (00:38): I will take you to Flint, Michigan where their world flipped upside down when they had a water quality crisis in 2014. Inadequate water treatment and monitoring resulted in various water quality and health problems for Flint residents, issues that government officials chronically neglected, dismissed, and minimized.

Video (00:55): . . .  leeched lead from the pipes and out the faucets. So if the waters safer, why are people still so afraid to drink it?

Video (01:02): Welcome to Flint. My name is April Hawkins, and I am a resident of Flint and we are still without clean water.

Antonia Belton (01:11): Shortly after the town begin supplying Flint river waters to residents in April 2014, residents began to complain that the water from their taps looked, smelled, and tasted foul. Officials claim that the water was clean despite protests by residents lugging jugs of discolored water.

Video (01:27): Water.

Video (01:27): What we do want?

Video (01:27): We want water.

Video (01:53): Governor Snyder's address competed with this.

Video (01:55): Flint water [inaudible 00:01:57]. Flint water-

Antonia Belton (01:59): In February of 2015, a city test revealed high lead content in the water of Flint residents' home. In April of that same year, the EPA states on and around the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality was notified that. It states the city did not have corrosion protection treatment operation at a Flint water treatment facility. In October of 2015, Snyder released an action plan, who's governor of Michigan, says the city and state will provide filters and water testing for Flint residents, among other things.

Antonia Belton (02:28): In 2019 Flint's most recent drinking water sample marked lead of four parts per billion. Well ahead of the 15 that needs action, a 90th percentile ranking accounts for those results. In other words, the federal standard complies with 90% of residents.

Video (02:43): I'm a home visitor for a program with the local school district here. I go into the homes and I work with parents and caregivers of children, from prenatal to the age of five. As residents here, we were concerned with them making that switch back in 2014-15. When I first started noticing things was going on with the water, color changes in my bathroom with the shower walls, the strong odor coming from the water, and then my hair came out.

Antonia Belton (03:15): Thinking back six years ago, on April 25th, 2014, when smiling city officials raised glasses of water to welcome a switch that changed 100,000 lives. The same degree of change occurred, corrosion spread unchecked through 580 miles of distribution of main pipes, 7,000 main valves and 28,000 lines of service that connected individual buildings through primary conducts. As the metal responded with water, filled with chloride compounds, tap water turned corrosive pipes colors.

Video (03:46): Out of the pipe?

Video (03:46): Yes, and exposed the lead.

Video (03:46): There are as many as 25,000 lines just like this in Flint, running from the water main in the street to people's homes, buried five to six feet deep. The only way to replace them is to dig them up.

Antonia Belton (03:59): After all of this, this makes me ask the what ifs. What could have been done to prevent this disaster? What could they have paid attention to? Scientists say that this could have been prevented by replacing the lead pipes with plastic pipes. Water quality is a central part of environmental monitoring. So now that you are aware of what it is and how affects the body, you can be mindful of water quality in your community. I'm Antonia Belton and I'm out.


Asset ID: 2022.15.01
Themes: Water, water quality, science, Flint, Michigan, social justice, pollution, recycling, disease, contamination, education
Date recorded: 2021
Length of recording: 04:22 m
File Type: Video
Related traveling exhibition: Water/Ways
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Lower Richmond High School students, in collaboration with Congaree National Park and Friends of Congaree Swamp, South Carolina
More informationhttps://carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu/water-ways-exhibition-to-open-at-congaree-national-park/
Rights Advisory: May contain copyrighted materials. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.

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