Flint, Michigan water is unsafe for residents, especially children
In late September, a group of Michigan doctors recommended residents
immediately stop drinking the water in Flint, Michigan after tests revealed extraordinarily high levels of lead.
The situation at one elementary school has taken a turn for the worse:
Parent Alisa Oliver was shocked to learn water tested at Freeman Elementary School had more than six times the federally allowable level of lead.
Emphasis added. Six times the federally allowable amount! And it wasn't the only school with high lead levels:
Eisenhower Elementary, along with the Brownell/Holmes STEM academies, also exceeded the limit, according to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant.
The situation is so bad, Governor Rick Snyder announced plans to bring water from
Detroit:
The governor's plan calls for buying nine months of water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department with at least $6 million coming from the state, a $4-million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and $2 million from the city.
Additional funds will be used for testing the kids:
An additional $4 million will be requested from the state for efforts to address immediate lead issues, including further testing of children in Flint school buildings where the state this week found three buildings that tested above the federal limits for lead in the drinking water. One school tested at more than six times the limit.
The lead levels increased after the city
switched water sources:
Until spring of last year, the City of Flint was a customer of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. That city, along with Genesee, Lapeer and Sanilac counties, now comprise the new Karegnondi Water Authority, set to open in 2016 with water pulled from Lake Huron. In April of 2014, Flint terminated its contract with the Detroit system, choosing instead to draw water from the Flint River while the Karegnondi system was under construction.
The city's first spate of trouble came when water samples registered high levels of coliform bacteria. Inept water treatment personnel added too much disinfectant to the river water, causing a different set of problems.
But the current situation, researchers say, is caused by the natural corrosive properties of Flint River water; the water leaches lead from the city's aging infrastructure into the water that passes through it at a higher rate.
At least one distraught parent is planning to move away from
affected schools:
Oliver said lead in the school's water is of extra concern for her youngest child, who had previously suffered from lead poisoning because of the lead-based paint inside a previous residence.
Oliver said she was moving to the other side of town, and her kids would be pulled from Freeman.