News Feature | July 25, 2017

Michigan Gives $400,000 To University For Flint Water Response

Sara Jerome

By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje

flint5 reg new

The state is giving the University of Michigan’s campus in Flint $400,000 in assistance aimed at water issues.

“The money is part of the new budget signed last week by Gov. Rick Snyder. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald says the money is partial reimbursement for the school’s response to the water emergency. Water drawn from the Flint River caused lead to leach from old pipes, contaminating the city’s water system,” the Associated Press reported.

“Fitzgerald says the Flint campus has spent more than $815,000 since 2015 on a variety of steps to ensure a safe water supply. They include new faucets and fountains, bottled water, inspections and labor,” the report said.

The Flint campus volunteered to test blood and provide health information to city residents, according to the AP.

The university funding is just one development in the city’s wide-ranging effort to ensure water safety in the aftermath of the lead crisis, which left hundreds of children with high blood lead levels. The crisis followed the city’s switch from the Detroit water supply to Flint River water.

Replacing lead pipes is another part of the effort. City officials announced progress with replacements in recent weeks.

“The city has replaced more than 7 percent of the estimated number of lead and galvanized water service lines in the city, meeting a federal mandate to do so by June 30, the coordinator of the effort says,” Michigan Live recently reported.

Flint officials told state regulators in a letter in July “that the city's replacement of 2,150 service lines as of June 30 exceeds the requirement in the federal Lead and Copper Rule,” the report said.

University of Michigan researchers estimated in December that Flint has as many as 29,100 lead or galvanized steel lines that may need replacing, according to The Detroit News.

Image credit: "20161004-FNS-LSC-0039," U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2016. Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/