Plus, the DNR will urge water systems to inform customers of high lead levels faster than required by federal rules.
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The lead contamination levels have decreased since last August, but residents should continue using bottled water and filters, he said.
Elevated lead in homes are still found throughout Flint, according to Edwards’ latest findings.
In Boston, only 37 schools still use tap water as a drinking option.
But that’s slowing efforts to clean out lead deposits and effectively recoat the pipes and plumbing to make them safe again, said Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who helped exposed the lead problem in Flint. Their goal: To examine how lead levels in the city’s water had changed since Flint began adding recommended chemicals to control the corrosion of pipes and reconnected to Detroit’s water source, Lake Huron. Such aid from FEMA includes bottled water, filters, and test kits handed out to the citizens in the affected area.
A spokesman says Gov. Rick Snyder is looking to address the cost to residents of using more water. The layer was stripped by untreated water from the Flint River, which caused lead and iron from the pipes to leach into the water system.
Corroded pipes are slowly being replaced – so far 33 of the city’s 8,000 lead service lines.
The action plan presented by Edwards at the news conference for repairing the water system focused nearly entirely on the need to move more corrosion-controlled water through the system in order to rebuild the protective coating around the lead pipes that had been destroyed by the corrosive Flint River water. In addition, they said, lead levels throughout Flint’s water system are “highly variable”.
But at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans agreed that the EPA needs to act more quickly. In March, 15% of water samples had lead levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s action level of 15 parts per billion, compared with 19% of samples in August. “It will be vitally important for everyone to participate to ensure the water quality improves in Flint”.
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One member also said Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality did not communicate with Flint residents, calling the department’s performance “unacceptable”. He has a simple answer for anyone wondering if people in Utah are drinking water that contains too much lead. And until they are rehabilitated in a proactive way, I don’t think the system is really financially sustainable.
