Inside the Abandoned Old Water Works: Flint, Michigan

WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.

The Flint Waterworks company began in 1883, with water being pumped through city-approved lead pipes. The company was eventually sold to the city in 1912, and in 1917 a new plant was built, treating roughly 20,000 gallons of water from the Flint River per minute.

In 1952 a second water treatment facility was added next to the old one. Between the two, they pumped 100 million gallons of water each day. Thanks to the growing pollution of the Flint River, in 1967 the city started buying pre-treated Lake Huron water from the Detroit Water & Sewage Company. If you wish to read more in-depth analysis, you can do so here.

Flint’s ongoing problems with the city water have been reported, documented, and recorded many times over. The contaminated water fiasco became known far and wide in 2016 when TV news, state and national newspapers, and other media made the public aware about Flint’s lead-contaminated drinking water.

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News footage repeatedly showed clips of the old plant, built next to the newer one, with its crumbling walls and rusted metal bridge that spanned between a tower and an elevated part of the building. Although the old plant is being noted as ‘historic’, with that title comes the unsavory history of Flint’s polluted water…..and who knows how long it will be before the city decides to tear it down?

But this article is not about the numerous woes of the city’s water – you can read about that almost anywhere. This is mainly to show you what the insides of the old plant look like. See it all here before it gets demolished.

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