By Dr. Robert Thorson

Hartford and Flint, Mich. — a tale of two cities.

The Hartford water supply (overseen by the Metropolitan District Commission) is so good that the Niagara Bottling company is proposing a plant in Bloomfield that would use up to 450,000 gallons per day. Meanwhile, the Flint water supply is so bad that hundreds of thousands of water bottles are being distributed by National Guard troops to keep people safe.

For years, I’ve shunned bottled water as being bad for the environment, given all the plastic that must be manufactured, recycled and disposed of, and all the fuel energy and traffic congestion involved in making deliveries. For years, I’ve wondered why so many people, including members of my own family, refuse to drink from the tap.

The standard answer I hear is that bottled water tastes better. But I suspect the main reason is mistrust: an unwillingness to believe that public (and quasi-public) water suppliers can be trusted to deliver clean water.

Sadly, Flint’s recent problems add strong support to those who insist on bottled water. No natural disaster was involved. No malfunction of infrastructure occurred. No unforeseen source of contamination appeared.

Instead, the city went from one water source to another to cut costs. In this case, from distant Lake Huron to the Flint River, which flows through Flint. In theory, the switch was to save the bankrupt city money. In practice, it altered the chemistry of tap water, increasing the corrosion of the ancient plumbing infrastructure, and raising the concentration of dissolved metals in tap water, especially lead, a potent neurotoxin. Though some residents noticed a change in smell and taste right away, the rising concentration of poison was invisible, and unnoticed by residents until it began diminishing the mental capacity of schoolchildren.

What shocks me most about this scenario is everything.

The geochemistry is fairly straightforward. Surely the engineers in charge must have literally tested the waters before and after the switch. Surely the plumbers of the public works department knew about the age and composition of the piping. Surely public health officials were doing routine environmental monitoring and would have noticed a spike in heavy metal pollution.

And the politicians? The state’s chief environmental regulator has resigned. The governor is taking serious heat for downplaying the problem. The word “coverup” is being used. A phalanx of federal agencies led by the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency are moving in to see if laws were violated.

And the taxpayers? Michigan’s governor asked the nation for at least $41 million of disaster relief to compensate for the incompetence. President Barack Obama has already cleared the way for $5 million in relief on the condition that the state match that contribution, and that anything more come from Congress. Surely it will be us, American taxpayers, who will foot much of the bill, directly or indirectly.

The root cause is poverty. Flint is a Rust Belt city in state receivership. From 2011 to 2015, its finances were controlled by a succession of governor-appointed emergency managers, one of whom decided to save money by switching water supplies.

Central Connecticut is lucky to have such good, clean water. Residents should give thanks, not only to nature, but also to those who oversee this resource, officially and unofficially.

Nevertheless, it seems a shame and a sham to bottle this public water to sell privately to those who mistrust their public water supply, even when it’s good.

Let’s hope that other cities won’t follow the example of Flint, choosing to save a few bucks in the short term only to pay for it more dearly in the long term.