Gov. Snyder says he’ll make announcement on Flint water Thursday

High levels of lead in city water and in the blood of children and infants since the city changed its water source have triggered a public health emergency here, including the mass distribution of lead-clearing faucet filters and bottled water.

Or, as Henry Henderson, the director of Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Midwest office, explained in a blog post, “the water from the Flint River, as treated, is far more corrosive than the Lake Huron water that had previously coursed through the City’s pipes and water infrastructure”.

The state last week confirmed a recent study at Hurley Children’s Hospital that found increased lead levels in blood tests for children living in two Flint ZIP codes. The city did so without planning any corrosion control, which would prevent lead from leaching from old pipes and entering into tap water. However, an alarming Flint Water Study found that about 10 percent of their local water samples had values of lead at levels of 25 ppb. “From what I see, the state is working very well with us”.

Organizers of the upcoming Flint River Fest are postponing the event amid problems with drinking water in the city. It rarely meets, but state officials say it will have a role in Flint’s water quality.

Just a day after Gov. Rick Snyder insisted that the consequences of drinking Flint’s water were not “fully understood”, county commissioners issued a recommendation for citizens not to drink the water before it was filtered.