The contamination is the result of the water being drawn from the nearby river. The river water eroded the lead solder in the towns pipes. It started in 2014. All per Wikipedia.

You misunderstand the situation. As the other commenter stated Flint decided to restart their own water treatment due to costs. They were not prepared to fully treat the water from the nearby river. They also ignored the water plant manager.

A lot of people don’t realize there was (and maybe still is) a huge outbreak of Legionnaires disease. Somehow the city suppressed the news about it.

I have a book from the 1920's that describes what additives to put into water to prevent it from eroding the lead pipes. Of course back they were only concerned about the pipes and didn't know about (or at least didn't admit) the health problems. Lead used to be very common, up until the 1980s lead was used for nearly all pipes in some way (generally only in solder though so not much - though I don't know how harmful that amount is. Pipes in the ground are generally expected to last for a long time (last I heard Boston still had wood pipes from before the revolution in use), so it is safe to say all towns have lead in their water system somewhere.

Thus all water supplies should be managing to reduce the ability of their water supply to reduce lead. I would also suggest that you should go to your town board and say your number one issue is getting rid of all the lead - and you are fine with reverting major roads to gravel to pay for it. (and seriously consider what other services are can be eliminated to find more money)