FRONTLINE

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NARRATOR

We've learned that a foreman named Matt McFarland was having concerns. >> He said, "We're not ready." He said the plant wasn't ready. The funding just wasn't there. The staffing wasn't there. There was a lot that would need to be done, and it would take time. >> McFarland died in 2016, but while working at the water plant, he regularly confided in his sister Tonja Petrella. This is the first time she's spoken publicly about her brother's concerns. >> He would call me, and he would just be so upset, and he would leave me messages that were just frantic, like, "Tonja, you have to call me right away. Please call me right away." I mean, he knew that they weren't ready for this. >> As the deadline approached, McFarland expressed his concerns to his supervisors. One of them, Mike Glasgow, had concerns, too. He wouldn't speak to us, but in an email, he told state regulators that if the plant were to open on schedule, "it will be against my direction." He later told investigators he never received a response. >> The city right now is just testing and treating this water. They're not using it in the drinking water yet. They hope to start doing that in the next few days. >> With the opening of the plant just hours away, Petrella began texting friends-- at her brother's behest-- that the water wasn't safe. >> I remember specifically the day before they actually flipped the switch, he called me, and he said, "Tonja, contact everyone that you know in Flint, anybody you care about, and tell them, 'Do not drink the water.'" >>

This is our moment

three, two, one. >> He said, "It's not safe. We're not ready," he said, "and people are going to die." >> Here's to Flint! >> Here's to Flint! >> Hear, hear.