See a map that explains Flint's lead test results (2024)
By —
Mark Brush, Michigan Radio Mark Brush, Michigan Radio
Nation
This report is from Michigan Radio. See the original story at Michiganradio.org.
Ever since the state admitted there was a problem with Flint’s drinking water, we all have been waiting for more information about how bad — how widespread — the problem might be.
Many people in Flint have been practically screaming that their water is bad for almost two years. When outside researchers and experts finally convinced state leaders to do something, one of the first things they did was to push people to get their water tested.
Thousands have had their water tested, and the state has been publishing the results of those tests in an excel spreadsheet.
We mapped the results of these lead tests for the month of January. These are tests of people’s drinking water more than two months after the city switched back to Lake Huron water from Detroit.
We could confirm the addresses of 4,051 drinking water tests in Flint for the month of January. We grouped the lead results into six ranges.
0 ppb: no lead detected in the drinking water
1-4 ppb: the EPA deems this range as acceptable
5-14 ppb: exposure is a concern, but still below an EPA “federal action level”
15-49 ppb: a range above the federal action level for lead, but can be treated by filters
50-149 ppb: reaching dangerous levels, but can be treated by filters
150 and above: a range at which the federal government says water filters might not work
See the map below — or see a full version here (click on a dot for ppb lead result and address):
You can see that no real pattern emerges.
Officials have their work cut out for them in determining the sources of the lead problem in these homes.
It should be noted that these 4,051 samples from around the city were randomly collected in the month of January.
They do not represent the potential for the “worst-case” scenario homes — homes connected to drinking water lines known to have lead in them.
City officials don’t know where those water lines are. It’s something they are working on now. Because they don’t know where those lines are, it’s more than likely the city has not been following the protocol under the EPA’s “Lead and Copper” rule for some time. That rule requires cities to watch these homes where lead could be a problem.
Even so, the sheer number of samples collected does begin to paint a picture in Flint (so far, a random one).
Mark Durno is the on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency in Flint. He says they’re getting a good size sample pool of the roughly 30,000 homes in the city.
“Normally when we collect samples that are representative of an entire system, it’s not nearly this robust,” says Durno. “Even with only 5,000 data points out of 30,000, that’s a pretty strong indicator of what we’re seeing in the system.”
Durno says they’re encouraging more people to have their water tested. He says it will help them figure out what’s going on, and it will help them identify the trouble spots.
Here’s how the numbers break down from the 4,051 samples we mapped above:
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says it’s working on a water testing plan that will help determine when the water in Flint will be safe to drink again. We should hear more about that plan in the coming weeks.
Thanks to Cass Adair, Elias Brush, and the folks at SmartyStreets for their help in mapping this data. Additional reporting from Rebecca Williams of Michigan Radio.
Editor’s note: PBS NewsHour had incorrectly stated the date in which people in Flint were able to pick up lead testing kits. That line has been corrected.
Left: Thousands of residents of Flint, Michigan, have had their water tested for lead, and the state has been publishing the results. Michigan Radio mapped the results, which you can see below. Photo by Rebecca Cook/Reuters
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Various studies have found that blood lead concentrations are positively and significantly related to the amount of lead in drinking water. Accounting for other sources of lead exposure (e.g., food, dust), the U.S. EPA set the maximum allowable concentration of lead in public drinking water at 15 µg/L.
The 2017 settlement agreement mandated that Flint finish replacing lead service lines and restoring residents' properties by January 2020. The deadline to finish the required excavations and pipe replacements was later extended to September 30, 2022, due to the COVID pandemic.
During the same period of Flint's water source change, 5.1 percent of Jackson, Michigan, children ages 5 and under, 8 percent of Grand Rapids, Michigan, children and 7.5 percent of Detroit children had blood lead levels higher than the CDC reference point (compared with 3.7 percent of Flint children).
That was a mystery that only chemistry could solve. In the spring of 2014, large amounts of lead found their way into the water that some residents of Flint, Mich., were using to drink, cook, and brush their teeth. Lead is known to be particularly damaging to young children's developing brains.
The Flint water crisis is a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria.
A pediatrician, scientist, and activist, Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a Charles Stewart Mott Endowed Professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. In 2015, she uncovered high levels of lead in the Flint, MI water supply and risked her career to bring this information to the public.
High lead levels have been found in tap water in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, New York, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C. One NRDC analysis found that between 2018 and 2020, 56 percent of the U.S. population drank from water systems with detectable levels of lead.
Since 2016, the attorney general's office, under a Republican and now a Democrat, has tried to hold people criminally responsible for Flint's water disaster, but there have been no felony convictions or jail sentences. Seven people pleaded no contest to misdemeanors that were later scrubbed from their records.
6,000–12,000 children exposed to lead Public health state of emergency 79 lawsuits Several investigations 4 resignations 4 firings 5 suspensions 15 indicted 1 found guilty
Flint invested millions of dollars in improving its water infrastructure, including a new chemical feed building, reservoir renovations, and the addition of a secondary water pipeline for emergencies. Despite what the lead levels show, Flint Water Plant supervisor Scott Dungee said many still don't trust the water.
Moreover, the health effects of lead exposure in children in Flint increased the risk of impaired cognition, behavioral disorders, hearing problems and delayed puberty. Although Flint has since switched its water back to the Detroit system, the Flint water crisis is by no means past.
Introduction: My name is Nathanael Baumbach, I am a fantastic, nice, victorious, brave, healthy, cute, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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