Water Still Not Safe to Drink in Flint, All Michigan Residents With Lead Pipes Urged to Use Filters

Jim Kiertzner
1:56 PM, Sep 28, 2016

(WXYZ) - The water is still not safe to drink in Flint and it is not known when it will be safe. Officials say it could be years before an all clear can be given.

Also a new warning for everyone to check for lead services lines running into their homes and businesses. It comes from Dr. Marc Edwards a water expert from Virginia Tech University who did the early testing in Flint and found high lead levels.

Dr. Edwards spoke by telephone during a media roundtable with Governor Rick Snyder that corrosion control of water had been a band-aid approach in all water systems in the United States.

Dr. Edwards said everybody should check for lead service lines, usually homes and businesses constructed before the mid 1980s. And if they are lead, filters must be used to be safe. He said Flint has become a national lesson saying, "If filters are not in place we will never again be able to say that water coming through a lead pipe regardless of how good the corrosion control is, is safe by modern standards. Not only in Flint but all around the United States."

According to Governor Snyder, Flint has had only 144 lead services lines replaced. The actual number is four to five thousand. They are very expensive to replace as they run from water mains under streets underground into buildings.

The Flint water crisis is one-year-old, but that's a one year anniversary of when state officials including Governor Rick Snyder recognized the emergency.

For the people of Flint, their trouble started in 2014 after their water supply was switched to the Flint River from Detroit to same money.

The river water was more corrosive and caused lead to leach into the drinking water. The water a year ago was switched back to Detroit.