Flint Mayor: Water Still Showing Lead Levels Beyond What Filters Can Remove

When disaster strikes, like the ongoing drinking water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, federal health officials want to use data, connectivity and crowdsourcing to better help the affected population. The bill also requires federal action if a state refuses to warn the public about unsafe water and authorizes $20 million a year to monitor lead exposure in Flint.

U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence of MI and Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland have complained that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has rejected requests to have Snyder testify at the hearing.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law $28 million in emergency funding to address Flint’s lead-contaminated water crisis. The water was not properly treated to keep lead from pipes from leaching into the supply.

For months, state officials downplayed reports of lead in the water and a spike in the lead levels in the blood of Flint children before acknowledging a problem October 1.

On Feb. 3, 2015, the governor granted the city $2 million to help with water system infrastructure improvements, such as finding leaks and replacing the waste water incinerator. “The problem of treating those sickened by the water and building a new, safe water system for the city is so enormous that all the religious groups working together won’t be able to solve it”.

The city of Burton shares a seven-mile border with Flint.

And like many residents, she saw brownish water coming out of her sink and shower past year, with a smell registering somewhere between chlorine and rotten eggs.

But emails between state employees that same month suggest that they were personally anxious about the water quality.

Hoosier Chris White went along with the FOX59 team in Flint to deliver water to a low-income housing development. This means lead tests, water filters and regular cases of water. “It’s not unavoidable. The government should have responded when people came to them and said the water is not good”.

Local officials said Friday they were encouraged by the quick turnaround of the discovery of elevated lead levels and disclosure to elected leaders and the public.

Problems with the water were apparent immediately after the city began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014 as part of cost-saving measures, yet Gov. Rick Snyder knowingly continued to put at risk the entire population of Flint, including almost 9,000 children, long after it was confirmed there was a serious problem.

While under state financial management, the city switched its water source to the Flint River but without controlling corrosion.

He has seen similar lead issues play out in other cities, and missing in government’s response has often been something basic.

Prior to the Flint crisis, water was of little concern to Grand Rapidians, and rightly so, said Yankee, the ETC regional manager in West Michigan.

By learning about the water crisis in Flint, the students have also learned about helping other people. In Chagrin Falls, the Ohio EPA, an arm of the Kasich administration, first found signs of lead pollution in water fountains at an elementary school with older, corroded pipes way back in August, but only this week did officials shut off the water and begin providing students and teachers with bottled water.