Flint Officials Announce $55 Million Plan to Eliminate Lead-Ridden Pipes

The seventh-largest city in Michigan, Flint is now in the midst of a major public health crisis; after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River in 2014, the water became contaminated with lead and bacteria.

Rick Snyder is interviewed after visited a church that’s distributing water and filters to its predominantly Latino parishioners in Flint, Mich. Snyder will propose spending $195 million more to address Flints water crisis and another $165 million updating infrastructure across the state in response to lead contamination overwhelming the city. Flint resident Sarah Truesdail holds her daughter Gabriella Venegas, 5, as she screams out with tears rolling down her face while a health official pricks her finger with a needle for a free lead test on M…

In a September 3 email to numerous state and local officials, then-public works director Howard Croft said a different concern had been identified.

It also has asked the DEQ for copies of reports it sent to Flint setting out what changes were needed to the plant to treat Flint River water as an interim drinking water source.

“We have performed over one hundred and sixty lead tests throughout the city since switching over to the Flint River and remain within the EPA standards”.

It will take time for the orthophosphate corrosion control the city is now using to re-coat pipes. CBS News’ Paula Reid has details from federal offici… It was obtained by the Flint Journal from the county through a Freedom of Information Act request. The water wasn’t properly treated to prevent lead from pipes from leaching into the supply.

Research shows lead exposure can affect a developing child’s IQ, resulting in learning disabilities. Flint has since moved back to the Detroit system. Not only does Lansing have experience with similar climate, water quality and pipe age; the city has also been able to improve upon its own process.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Flint mayor Karen Weaver announced a $55m plan to replace the city’s network of lead service lines.

A spokesman for Snyder, who has apologized for his administration’s role in the disaster, says the $25 million for pipe replacement in Flint is a starting point and could grow once a full analysis is done. “That’s the only way this community is going to be confident and people will stay here and people will come”. “We owe it to our children to make it happen as soon as possible”. “We’ll let the investigations determine who’s to blame for Flint’s water crisis, but I’m focused on solving it”, Weaver said. According to this woman, the state has threatened in the past to place a lien or condemn a non-paying home, as well as taking children away from homes that don’t have access to the water. Flint’s water is contaminated from lead pipes, and experts have suggested a link between the city’s water switch and a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in which some people died.