Michigan panel offers plan of returning safe water to Flint

James Green hands out a water test kit to be distributed to residents, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016 in Flint, Mich. The National Guard, state employees, local authorities and volunteers have been dis…

High lead levels have been detected in Flint’s water since the city switched from the Detroit municipal system and began drawing from the Flint River.

By the end of next week, MI would have access to $80 million for water infrastructure funding agreed to in last month’s bipartisan budget, Obama told a group of mayors at the White House.

Snyder has apologized for Flint’s lead contamination.

To hear Lizzie’s full conversation with Kai, tune in using the player above. EPA has determined the State of MI and the City of Flint’s responses to the drinking water crisis in Flint have been inadequate to protect public health, there are serious, ongoing concerns with delays, lack of adequate transparency, and capacity to safely manage the drinking water system.

But the more corrosive water from the Flint River, which is known locally as a dumping ground, was not treated and caused more lead to leach from the city’s aging water pipes than Detroit’s water did.

Rick Snyder, speaking on MSNBC, said problems over the switch to another water source that caused lead to contaminate the struggling city’s drinking water stemmed from the actions of a few government workers.

As the Guardian notes: “Soon after the memo was sent to Snyder, researchers and journalists uncovered a fact that is now well-established: as a result of the state’s failure to properly apply federal standards in treating the Flint river, thousands of residents have been exposed to lead, a neurotoxin that can produce long-term health effects, particularly in young children”. The EPA official responsible for MI also resigned on Thursday.

Research shows the presence of lead in the blood of children, even at low levels, can stunt their development seriously and irreversibly – in particular, the development of their brain.

“I got close to see what they were giving out, and it was water”.

But it’s impossible to say how long it will take before the water is safe enough to drink without the use of filters, which the state has been distributing to residents along with bottled water.

Many residents are not ready to give up on Flint. McCarthy also spoke to newly elected Flint Mayor Karen Weaver about these next steps.

“As an association, we exist to to help our members first, so we try in a situation like this to collect the information from the event that is going to help them understand it and help them do their jobs better”, Kail said in an interview, adding that the key role it takes in situations like this is helping them work with their customers. Misleading water testing methods include running water for several minutes before testing in order to flush out any contaminants that may have settled into the water. It wasn’t immediately clear how much would go to Flint.

The burden of other people’s pipes doesn’t all fall on Illinois American Water, but the company says it’s a step they take to help customers and be e-p-a compliant.

The documents in question were obtained via FOIA by Dr. Yanna Lambrinidou, who sat on the Environment Protection Agency taskforce that recently proposed revisions on the federal rules for lead.

“When this thing went huge and… all the news people picked it up, we probably had 30 or 40 inquiries in a very short period of time within about four days”, said Koegel.