What Flint Still Doesn't Have Clean Water

Published August 21, 2022 at 11:fifty AM EDT

This post has been updated with new information about the testing of Flint's water.

Five years ago, the city of Flint switched its h2o to the Flint River. Citizens soon complained of dirty, foul-smelling h2o. Doctors found evidence of loftier lead levels in children. Outside researchers proved the city'southward water (because of a lack of corrosion command) was corroding pipes, leaner levels skyrocketed, and thousands of people were without make clean water.

That began v years agone. At present, many people still say that Flint, Michigan doesn't take clean h2o.

Abdul El-Sayed, Jonathan Van Ness, and Alyssa Milano tweets — It'south mutual for politicians and celebrities to claim that Flintstone withal doesn't have clean water.

The problem is, those claims are misleading.

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Equally a city, Flint'south atomic number 82 levels take tested well below the federal action level of 15 parts per billion since 2022. The latest examination results from January 2022 establish iv parts per billion in the 90th percentile of the highest take a chance homes. For comparison, at the meridian of the crunch, those homes were testing at 20 parts per billion on average.

As a consequence of the crisis, Flintstone'south drinking water system has become one of the most closely monitored in the country. And a new lead and copper rule means that Michigan now has the strictest h2o standard in the nation.

Credit Kaye LaFond / Michigan Radio

Michigan Radio

At this point, Flint's lead levels are better than some other Michigan cities. Over the concluding two years, Benton Harbor, Romulus, Hamtramck, Parchment, Houghton and the villages of Lawrence and Beverly Hills each exceeded the EPA action level for pb in drinking water, co-ordinate to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Michigan likewise now has the toughest drinking water standards in the country, and requires vigorous testing.

Read more: Ripple Effects of the Flint Water Crunch

That doesn't mean in that location still aren't problems in Flint.

The city switched back to the Detroit water arrangement in 2022. Simply the damage had already been done, and the city'southward lead service lines continued to leach lead into residents' drinking h2o.

Since 2022, crews take inspected more 20,000 service lines, replacing roughly eight,000 lead and galvanized pipes. By the time the work is done, near every line in the city volition take been inspected or replaced.

Until the replacement work is finished, people have been advised to continue using water filters provided past the government. However, that recommendation is non unique to Flint. The EPA recommends that water filters be used in homes that could have lead lines, which applies to many U.Due south. cities. Learn how to find out if your dwelling house has pb lines here.

At that place have as well been bureacratic complications.

In August 2022, the state of Michigan warned city officials that Flintstone was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act because information technology failed to test water at enough homes with lead service lines or pb plumbing fixtures. A spokeswoman for the urban center told MLive that Flintstone officials say that is because the state "did non provide the metropolis with the final canonical sampling methods" in time.

Flintstone was required to examination water from a minimum of 60 high-run a risk homes from Jan to July 2022. But every bit the metropolis works to supervene upon lead service lines, there are fewer and fewer homes that meet that standard.

The city submitted 35 valid tests, and thirty invalid sample results. But those tests were invalid because the samples were either taken after a dwelling's lead service line had been replaced, or before digging showed the service line to be copper.

Residents remain skeptical

Despite assurances from regime officials and outside experts, many of Flint's residents will non drink the h2o. Their skepticism isn't without justification.

When the crisis began, state and federal officials repeatedly denied that there was any issue with the water, despite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Q6ZXnKDA4">articulate evidence that there was. After, officials manipulated exam results, downplayed the problem, and lied to residents.

As Michigan Radio's Lindsey Smith reported:

"The tests were bad plenty that [in July 2022], they should take informed the public about the broad atomic number 82 risk, but that'south not what happened. Instead, country and metropolis officials kept telling residents there was no lead problem in Flintstone'due south h2o; that this EPA written report was incorrect; that the report was written past a 'rogue employee.'"

The consequences of the crunch are ongoing.

It is still unclear how much the high lead levels affected children'south mental development. The Legionnaires' disease outbreak that coincided with the crunch led to 12 deaths, and residents say they are still fearful of leaner in the water, although levels are largely back to normal.

Because of their concerns, many Flintstone residents yet rely on bottled water donations. The state ended free distribution last twelvemonth.

For the people of Flint, it may exist years before the water crisis is a retentivity.

This mail service was updated on August 21, 2022 at 11:l a.1000.

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