Flint used to buy Lake Huron water through the city of Detroit but the state ordered the source changed to water from Flint River.
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Five months, and residents still can’t drink what comes out of their taps.
“In light of these lawsuits and the heightened public focus on possible lead contamination, Fitch expects any proposed rule revisions will likely move the industry toward removing all lead service lines”, the rating agency said.
“DEQ needs to improve its oversight and monitoring of community water supplies that implement a new water source or treatment process to ensure that DEQ meets its mission of promoting wise management of water resources to support healthy communities”, the audit said, adding that failure to do so in Flint “may have contributed to elevated lead levels in the drinking water system”.
Homes like that of Fortina Harris.
The George Brown College student who also works as a server at East Side Mario’s said she first heard about Flint in the news and admits it was just “mind-boggling”. “We’ve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African-American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water….” Since learning of the lead issue, they have been using bottled water, and taking other measures to protect themselves from the tainted water.
And this isn’t even the worst case, according to the county health department. Some defendants could also face criminal charges as state and federal prosecutors investigate how Flint’s water was poisoned.
Levels that high are twice the threshold the EPA considers toxic waste.
It was a symbolic day in Flint on Friday as the city removed its first lead water service line under Mayor Karen Weaver’s “FAST Start” program. Similar problems with aging pipes have cropped up in several states since the Flint crisis became known previous year. Then she went straight to Flint to drop them off with Red Cross officials on the ground.
Residents in Flint, Mich., are facing ongoing water issues after the city began drawing water from the Flint River that leached lead from the city’s plumbing. When she was told by officials that her household lead-in-water problem was specific to just her home, she responded by seeking outside help.
Weaver says she’s using $2 million – a reimbursement from the state when the water was switched back – and guidance from a neighboring city, Lansing, Michigan. Now the mayor is leading the way to replace the water pipes. “But … the lead pipes have got to be pulled out, no doubt about it”.
UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, took out full-page ads in a trio of MI newspapers this week giving residents and businesses cut-out signs to put up in their homes and storefronts declaring, “Governor Snyder Not Welcome”.
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Brad Wurfel, resigned communications director and public spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), personally intervened by publicly slandering EPA lead specialist Manuel Del Toral as a “rogue employee”. Flint’s utility department now has a staff of only 20. “I think that was really an embarrassment”, she said. “… I don’t know if he resigns that Brian Calley is in a better position to get things done than he is”.
