Flint Whistleblower on Water Quality Panel Saturday

ROYAL OAK, MI – Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the whistleblower physician who exposed the Flint public health catastrophe, will join state Rep. Jim Townsend, D-Royal Oak, at a town hall meeting Saturday.

Hanna-Attisha’s findings, published in a study released in September that brought national attention to the Flint water crisis, confirmed parents’ worst fears after the city water supply was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River: The proportion of children with above-average levels of lead in their blood had nearly doubled since since the switch.

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Hanna-Attisha, the pediatric residency director at Flint’s Hurley Children’s Hospital, grew up in Royal Oak and now lives in West Bloomfield.

Townsend and Hanna-Attisha will discuss issues that affect water quality at Saturday’s town hall meeting, to be held from 1-2:30 p.m. at the Royal Oak Senior Center, 3500 Maple Ave.

Joining Townsend and Hanna-Attisha on a panel will be Great Lakes Water Authority CEO Sue McCormick, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash, and state reps. Robert Wittenberg, D-Oak Park, Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, and Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills.

Nash said the crisis in Flint is “a special situation” that he doesn’t see occurring in Oakland County, where the biggest water quality threat comes from storm water runoff.

He also noted that algae blooms are becoming more common on Lake St. Clair and a small part of Lake Huron, due largely to agricultural and lawn chemicals.

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