Flint Water Problems Continue, Trust In Officials Diminishes

It has been over a year since residents in Flint, MI, were asked not to drink their water. Since then, other cities have been watchful of their own water sources, adding precautions and taking measures against possible lead contamination.

The story of Flint’s contamination has been heard countless times now. According to The Michigan Daily state-appointed emergency managers were plagued by the state’s financial troubles, and working together with the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), switched the city’s water source from Detroit-supplied water to the Flint River in April 2014.

The city planned to join a new pipeline, the Karegnondi Water Authority, The Michigan Daily reported. The city decided instead to treat its own water so that it could save $5 million in less than two years. Unfortunately, when the water supplies switched, the chemicals that were used to control corrosion from Flint River water were not introduced, which allowed lead to enter the water from Flint’s old pipes.

The water from the Flint River is no longer used “in favor of the city’s former source, the Detroit system, which gets water from Lake Huron,” according to The New York Times.

The state environmental authority in Michigan reported that “more than 90 percent of recent water samples in Flint were below concerning lead levels,” The New York Times reported.

In April, the U.S. EPA called for the development of a national plan that would better protect the nation’s drinking water amid the crisis, according to Reuters.

Federal officials in June announced that it was safe to drink “properly filtered” water in Flint. The EPA said in a statement that testing at nearly 50 locations in the city showed lead levels far below those considered dangerous.

The New York Times reported that state and city officials have urged “that residents use filtered water from their taps whenever possible.”

“We need to move the water in Flint if we want to move Flint forward,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement, obtained by The New York Times.

Rightly so, residents have remained wary of Flint’s water since the lead contamination, after they showed the condition their drinking water was in.

According to The Michigan Daily, communication from public officials remains an issue of concern for residents. A variety of government agencies distributed filters to all households in Flint and even managed water bottle donations, but still, residents believe that efforts in delivering aid would not have happened without the help of the independent efforts of citizens.

According to The New York Times, Flint residents are now suffering from an outbreak of shigellosis, a bacterial illness transmitted when people do not wash their hands.

There has been an increase in the gastrointestinal illness, health department officials in Genesee County told The New York Times, that according to a statement can lead to an lead to severe diarrhea, fever, nausea, and other ailments.

For similar stories visit Water Online’s Consumer Outreach Solutions Center.