Flint Water No Longer Exceeds Federal Lead Levels: Report

(Updated) FLINT, MI — The water supply in Flint no longer exceeds federal limits for lead contamination, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said.

The report showing Flint lead contamination is “below actionable” levels hasn’t been made public yet, but DEQ officials told the Associated Press the rates compare with other U.S. cities.

Residents still must use water filters during the ongoing project to replace Flint’s aging delivery system, according to the report. During the project, lead levels could continue to spike in some areas, the DEQ said.

Flint’s water became contaminated more than two years ago when the city switched its water supply to the Flint River from the cleaner, but more expensive, water drawn from Lake Huron. For many of residents. Since then, potentially thousands of Flint residents have been exposed to the lead tainted water, including children, for whom lead poisoning can be a life sentence of emotional and intellectual problems.

The DEQ report comes as plaintiffs headed back to federal court Tuesday to fight a motion filed by the state of Michigan asking Judge David Lawson to dissolve his November 2016 preliminary injunction ordering state and city officials to verify which residences have properly installed water filters, and provide door-to-door water delivery to those that don’t. This is the second time Michigan officials have asked that the order be dissolved.

Michigan officials have argued the order put order places an “immediate, insurmountable burden” on the state.

So far, 13 people have been charged with felonies in a criminal investigation into the city’s and state’s handling of the crisis. Two former emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to shore up Flint’s finances are the highest-level employees to be charged so far in the special investigation.

When he announced the latest charges, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette accused the two —Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose — of putting “numbers over people, money over health” and said their financial decisions “cost lives.”

The lead crisis is believed to have contributed to an outbreak of Legionnaires disease that killed 12 people and exposed countless children to dangerously high levels of lead in their drinking water, Schuette said.
“That cannot be swept under the rug,” Schuette said at the time.

At last month's news conference announcing the charges, Schuette declined to say if Snyder might be charged.

"It’s serious," he said. "We’re going up and we’re going broad. We read the emails and put two and two together. If there’s sufficient evidence, we charge. Nobody’s on the table; nobody’s off the table."

Photo by Ricardo Bernardo via Flickr Commons