Hosting: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Testimonies by (L-R): Ms. Susan Hedman (Former EPA R5), Mr. Darnell Earley (Former Emergency Manager – Flint), Mr. Dayne Walling (Former Mayor – Flint), Dr. Marc Edwards (VA Tech)
We applaud Ohio and all other states, who are taking definitive steps to protect their residents from lead in water risks.
By Lee-Anne Walters
We begin the follow-up Virginia Tech sampling on Monday March 7, 2016! We are all very excited to be a part of this again. People can begin picking up their kits at these locations:
Bethel United Methodist Church, 1309 N. Ballenger Hwy, Flint MI
| Monday 3/7/16 | Tuesday 3/8/16 | Wednesday 3/9/16 | Thursday 3/10/16 | Friday 3/11/16 |
| 1pm-4pm | 4:00pm-7pm | 1pm-4pm | 4:00pm-7:00pm | 1:00pm-4:00pm |
Woodside Church, 1509 E. Court St, Flint MI
| Monday 3/7/16 | Tuesday 3/8/16 | Wednesday 3/9/16 | Thursday 3/10/16 | Friday 3/11/16 |
| 5:00pm-8:00pm | 1:00pm-4:00pm | 5:00pm-8:00pm | 1:00pm-4:00pm | 5:00pm-8:00pm |
Our last day for drop off will be Saturday March 12, 2016 at:
New Standard School, 2040 W. Carpenter Rd, Flint MI || Also, EPA Open House will take place here.
10:00am-5:00pm
This is also the same time and location for the EPA Open House I have been updating on. This will be a great chance for citizens to talk to scientists from the EPA and other experts, and find out about what is being done right now! There will be four specific areas that people can talk to experts about and ask questions on: Water Sampling incl. chlorine issues, System Recovery, Water Filters, and Health Issues. MDEQ will also be present to talk to citizens. Marc Edwards from Virginia Tech and Miguel Del Toral from EPA will be at this meeting, along with other experts.
On Monday (March 7), EPA will also be extracting a lead service line for the pipe loop testing. The pipe will be extracted in a gentle manner so that the scale inside the pipes can be extracted and sent out to a laboratory in Oregon for testing of heavy metals. This will help us understand what is going on. The pipe will be installed immediately for the pipe loop testing so we can begin to study the water the right way in a controlled setting. I have been asked to be there for this extraction and will update next week with pictures.
Lots of stuff happening and all great things!
A few days ago, our team assembled 271 lead test kits to re-test the same homes we tested in Aug-Sep 2015 to do a valid before-after comparison of lead levels after Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015 (and, since then has ramped up corrosion control treatment). The US EPA is funding this round of sampling.
This week, our team left for Flint in two cohorts: Dr. Jeff Parks drove 168 kits to Flint earlier this week, and a team of 8 on their Alternative Spring Break (ASB), including 2 students and 1 scientist from the Flint Water Study team, are driving to Flint as I write this with the rest as well as additional microbiological sampling kits.
Sampling is expected to begin on March 7th, with Lee-Anne Walters leading a team of citizens and students in this endeavor. Residents will receive phone calls to coordinate kit drop-off and pick-up. We will be posting results from this round of sampling as soon as we start getting the kits back and analyzing them.
A team from Virginia Tech University Relations (Cassandra Hockman, Logan Wallace, Jordan Fifer, and J. Scott Parker) will also be following the students around, and posting regular updates and multimedia on the Virginia Tech website.
By Lee-Anne Walters
I am excited to announce that we will start the repeat sampling in 271 Flint homes (i.e. retesting homes we sampled in Aug-Sep 2015 with Virginia Tech) on Monday March 7, 2016.
There will be an EPA Open House meeting for the citizens on Saturday March 12, 2016; time and venue will be announced later this week. I am happy to announce that Mr. Miguel Del Toral (EPA) and Dr. Marc Edwards (Virginia Tech) will be the experts at this meeting.
The EPA Expo meeting, originally scheduled for March 11, 2016, will now take place on April 16, 2016 at the River Front (Time not decided yet).
With this update, you will see also pictures attached (see below). These are pipe loops that have been set up to conduct testing of the water in a controlled environment to treatment. My understanding is these should be up and running shortly. We will have more details on these going forward.
Finally, I want to discuss the confusion around the lead service line removal questions/concerns. Yes, ALL lead service lines need to be removed and that is what we (citizens) will continue to fight to make sure that happens. As we move forward with planning pipe replacements, we need to make sure the accurate science and safeguards are in place before that can happen. There are serious concerns on the condition of the mains and the valves in the system before we start replacement.
