LANSING, Mich. (AP) – State and federal officials acted to send more help to Flint to deal with its lead-contamination crisis, as the Michigan House approved $30 million on Thursday to help pay residents’ water bills and Gov. Rick Snyder announced a $2 million grant to help the city replace some of its pipes.
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The lawsuit, filed on February 17, 2016 in the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois, states that the city’s aging lead water pipes are disturbed by construction or street work, meter installation or replacement, or plumbing repairs – projects that disrupt the polyphosphate coating that protects the service lines and increases the risk of “alarming levels of lead” into nearby residents’ water supply.
Flint’s tap water is contaminated with lead because the city for 18 months used water from the Flint River without reducing corrosiveness.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson led the marchers as they protested the city’s ongoing drinking water crisis. But unlike many other USA cities that shifted decades ago to pipes made of copper or other metals, Chicago required the use of lead service lines until they were banned nationwide in 1986. Officials hope anti-corrosion chemicals will recoat the pipes so the water is safe to drink without filters within months.
The city’s department of water management said in an emailed statement it has not yet reviewed the lawsuit, but added “Chicago’s water is safe and exceeds federal, state and industry standards”.
The federal agency wants to see the city “immediately” take steps to fill vacancy city water department positions. “I’m also out here to say thank you to the many people all over the world who have been doing so many great many things for us, to have given us bottled water from everywhere and the prayers”.
City officials did not respond to messages seeking comment.
“We have a facility specifically dedicated for corrosion control”, Bronowski said.
Prosecutor Steve Berman of Hagens Berman said the amount of lead poisoning among Chicago children living in older homes is several hundred per cent higher than children living in similar homes in other cities. However, the EPA report found that lead can still end up in drinking water after the first water has been drawn.
Others milled outside and joined the group as they marched down East Myrtle Avenue to Stewart Avenue and to the City of Flint Water Plant a little over one mile away.
The city spent $1.3 million on zinc orthophosphate over the last three years, Bronowski said, which forms a barrier to seal lead inside the pipes.
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Flint switched its drinking water source from Detroit, which draws from Lake Huron, to the Flint River in April 2014 as a temporary cost-saving measure. The result was that some samples of residents’ tap water measured 900 times the allowable limits on lead.
