Virginia Tech Professor Marc Edwards, leader of the university’s Flint Water Study team said, “There’s no doubt the system is in much, much better shape than it was in 2015”.
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Edwards and his graduate students first teamed up with Flint residents last summer to investigate Flint’s water while the local, state and federal governments downplayed his concerns about its lead content. Since being proven right, Snyder has made Edwards one of his top water consultants, and the EPA funded his recent round of testing.
They found that the city is still not meeting the federal action level for lead, 15 ppm, today.
Edwards recommended Flint residents continue to use lead filters or drink bottled water.
“Virtually all homes in Flint must be considered at risk, at the present time, for elevated lead in water, unless the homeowner is certain that there is no lead plumbing” Edwards said in his prepared remarks.
“We will work closely to ensure that Flint has the technical expertise in place before switching to an alternative water source”, Creagh said in the written testimony. Testing by the EPA has confirmed that the lead filters distributed in Flint reduce water lead to below 3 ppb even in homes with the worst lead.
The team conducted a detailed investigation of water use in a few homes that had persistently high levels of lead, revealing many residents are using very little water. Lead can cause permanent learning disabilities, behavior problems and, at higher levels, a number of diseases.
“If we want to help this system recover, we have to get water moving through these pipes”, he said.
Edwards says that they believe that Flint water is now safe for bathing.
As the blame spreads regarding a responsible party for Flint’s water infrastructure issues, the Senate’s energy bill is still stalled, partly because of a hold placed by Sen.
According to Edwards, the team will continue to monitor the situation.
“We’re the only ones with access to this data”, Edwards said.
Creagh’s testimony focuses on “lessons learned” from the Flint water crisis, including his agency’s mistakes in misreading the federal regulations for preventing the leaching of lead in old water pipes. “That will provide relief for the people of Flint and increase the financial stability of the city’s water department”, Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said of the credits.
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“They elected to do two six-month studies instead”, Snyder says.
