“And we are vigilant to ensure that they are not drinking water that’s unsafe”.
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Lead levels are improving in Flint. The state previously approved $30 million to help residents pay their water bills dating back to the switch to the Flint River.
“What we discovered was that many Flint residents are, not surprisingly, not using very much water”, Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards said Tuesday during a videotaped press conference to present the results of the water-quality tests he and his team conducted in March.
“From every single scientific perspective, the more water a resident uses, the better the water is going to be”, he said.
A recent round of sampling shows lower levels of poisonous lead contaminating Flint’s water, but the amount of lead is still above what the Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable for a public water system.
In March, 174 Flint residents out of 269 who participated in the August testing resampled their tap water for lead.
Flint’s lead problems began to surface after the city temporarily switched to the Flint River for its water supply in April 2014, as part of a bid to save money. The federal action level is 15 ppb. The city has since reconnected to the Detroit area’s water system, which uses corrosion chemicals, but the damaged pipes need the coating. On average, iron levels decreased from seven percent to four percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Edwards said that almost all homes in the town are considered to be at risk for elevated lead levels unless residents are certain they have no lead plumbing. The prepared remarks were released Tuesday by the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce in advance of its subcommittee hearing. They told them the water crisis illustrates why the state’s emergency manager law must change.
Showering once per week for five minutes to reduce the likelihood of rashes and other concerns associated with the water. Residents now are using faucet filters or bottled water.
Flint started adding extra corrosion controls to its water in December, two months after Snyder approved the city’s return to the Detroit water system. “That is simply not true”.
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One member also said Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality did not communicate with Flint residents, calling the department’s performance “unacceptable”.
