High lead levels in Flint exceed filters’ rating

“We were paying hundreds of dollars for water that poisoned us…”, Isbell said in the video.

Moore criticized Snyder for being untrustworthy of distributing federal relief funds – which he said are filtered first through the governor’s office, akin to “paying the fox to fix the chicken coop he destroyed”.

You expect drinking water to be safe, but there could be a hidden danger that you can’t see or smell.

In this photo taken on Wednesday, a poster offering a $5,000 reward for “citizen arrest” of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is displayed in downtown Ann Arbor, Mich. The posters were among messages criticizing Snyder, including ones written in chalk on sidewalks, over his handling of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

But how do you keep lead out of the water supply when the city you’re providing water for is over 100 years old and has the water mains and plumbing fixtures to match? The heavy metal also interferes with nervous system development in children, potentially leading to developmental and learning disabilities, and has been linked to some mood disorders.

It’s the second round of state aid since the fall, when improperly treated water was found to have leached lead from pipes into the city’s supply.

A state legislative leader from Flint says the suggestion that the public also could drink from the water coolers is “insulting”. “They just didn’t make use of it and that took them down a road that’s going to be hard to come back from”.

“For tomorrow i think that we should at least double that I would love to have at 200 or 250 cases tomorrow”, said Smith. “They’ve also received or are eligible to receive filters and water test kits”.

“I heard the filters didn’t work so I didn’t even install it”, said Thomas, a mother of two.

Murray said one water cooler was placed on each floor and next to public drinking fountains. “So you had the state appointing an emergency manager whose task was to reduce costs at all cost, whatever you gotta do, reduce the cost to the city”, Peters said.

Snyder, who has apologized for the disaster and his administration’s mistakes, has said he did not clearly know the full extent of the water’s danger until around October 1, when state health officials confirmed elevated blood-lead levels in children after doubting outside experts. Local and state officials insisted for months the water was safe to drink but reversed course after independent testing discovered unsafe lead levels throughout the system believed to be caused by leaching from lead piping. In Washington, D.C., reporting by the Washington Post revealed in 2004 that tap water in the nation’s capital contained high lead levels, and subsequent testing revealed that a high number of children had been exposed.

This is because in many cities, especially in the Midwest and Northeast, the service lines that bring water into people’s houses – as opposed to the water mains that run under the street – are often made of lead.

Consumer advocate and environmental activist, Erin Brockovich, says “the water crisis in Flint is the tip of the iceberg because water contamination is a national problem in America”.