[Feb 5 2016] EPA Update on Flint Testing
By Lee Walters
Lead Update:
Last Friday the data on the filter testing finally started coming. EPA did a press conference to confirm that in all homes tested so far the filters are working. There is still a concern that in homes with very high lead, the filters might not work. EPA reviewed the paper Marc Edwards provided on how effective filters are as a guide to compare to the work on the ground. The way the EPA is testing is comparing lead in water from the tap no filter, water with the filter and water with the filter with the new cartridge.
You can view their test results with the link provided here. The EPA will be doing everything in real time to keep the citizens informed.
http://epa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9211a0ea3c4749ff939a0e73340c1cfe
Chlorine Update:
There is a one month study of chlorine being conducted by the EPA throughout the city to assess the disinfection and low concentrations of chlorine. They are targeting the known problem areas for a complete study. One of the things I learned from talking with the chlorine expert is that the smaller pipes are the best to study because it gives a real reading in the system. So they have reached out to different establishments for weekly testing. There are 24 sites to date being tested. I also learned that the 10 sites that City of Flint have been testing are not the best sites to be testing. With the size of our water distribution system, 10 sites is an unusually small number to do this type of testing. So, before the KWA pipeline comes online this needs to addressed. There will be weekly updates on getting the right sites. The goal is to track the disinfection over this period of time so the experts can see what changes need to be made. We have also reached out the Mayor of Burton to add the 65 Burton residents currently on City of Flint water to the testing pool.
We are in the process of setting up a town hall meeting for the citizens and the EPA. EPA officials working on the Flint Water Emergency Response will be available to talk to citizens and answer questions. Stay tuned for date and time.
If you have questions/concerns or would like to discuss water testing, please contact the EPA using the following information:
800-426-4791
Did you think the story of MDEQ malfeasance could not get worse? Wrong again. MDEQ’s negligence quite possibly killed a few of the very people they were paid to protect.
This latest example of MDEQ’s incompetence and obfuscation, exposed in e-mails obtained by Progress Michigan, clearly demonstrates how hard MDEQ employees worked, to derail efforts of other caring government officials who wanted to protect the health of Flint residents.
In this case, Jim Henry of the Genesee County Health Department (GCHD) was demanding information by filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to shed light on a hypothesis that the uptick in Legionnaire’s Disease was due to the switch to Flint River water. Henry wrote on to MDEQ and city officials on March 10, 2015 (emphasis added):
In 2014, Genesee County experienced a significant increase of confirmed Legionella illnesses relative to previous years. Legionella can be a deadly, waterborne disease that typically affects the respiratory system. The increase of the illnesses closely corresponds with the timeframe of the switch to Flint River water. The majority of the cases reside or have an association with the city. Also, Mclaren Hospital identified and mitigated Legionella in their water system. This is rather glaring information and it needs to be looked into now, prior to the warmer summer months when Legionella is at its peak and we are potentially faced with a crisis. This situation has been explicitly explained to MDEQ and many of the city’s officials. I want to make sure, in writing that there are no misunderstandings regarding this significant and urgent public health issue.
The fact that GCHD felt obligated to use FOIA to get information, normally shared freely between health agencies, speaks to a new level of dysfunction beyond anything previously exposed.
The March 12 e-mail response from MDEQ to Jim Henry, dismisses the idea that legionella problems could be arising from poor operation of the treatment plant or distribution system (i.e, corrosion control):
The DEQ fully recognizes the public health threat posed to individuals that contract Legionnaires’ Disease with the understanding that the disease is not contracted by ingestion of potable water and therefore not regulated under the . federal Safe Drinking Water Act…. conclusions that legionella is coming from the public water system without the presentation of any substantiating evidence from your epidemiologic investigation appears premature and prejudice toward that end. It is highly unlikely that legionella would be present in treated water coming from the City of Flint water treatment plant given the treatment plant’s use of ozone along with complete treatment and chlorine disinfect contact time to comply with federal surface water treatment rules for potable water.
This MDEQ e-mail further offloads all responsibility for any legionella growth, to private plumbing and the city of Flint main breaks, even though the MDEQ lack of corrosion control is the currently hypothesized cause of the higher legionella (i.e., no corrosion control = more main breaks + less chlorine + more iron). MDEQ stated (emphasis added):
While total organic carbon levels in potable water may serve as a food source for bacteria growth in private plumbing system, water temperatures in the City’s distribution system are below Legionella growth range, and chlorine residual levels would also limit such growth. Our office agrees that water main breaks, water leaks, and system repairs are possible vectors for legionella to enter the public water system. These should be investigated as part of your epidemiology.
The short summary of the situation, sent from MDEQ’s Brad Wurfel up to the Governor’s staff, was that Henry was “beyond irresponsible.”
Essentially, Jim Henry with Genesee County Health is putting up the flare. He’s made the leap formally in his email that the uptick in cases is directly attributable to the river as a drinking water source – this is beyond irresponsible, given that is his department that has failed to do the necessary traceback work to provide any conclusive evidence of where the outbreak is sourced, and it also flies in the face of the very thing a drinking water system is designed to do.
Recall the date when MDEQ falsely stated to EPA that there was “optimal corrosion control” in Flint? February 27th, 2015. Thus, two weeks after that false statement, MDEQ did not volunteer the critical information about the lack of corrosion control to Jim Henry (GCHD). Even though it is very likely the cause of higher legionella.
We can now add Jim Henry to a growing list of government employees who were inquiring to understand the health concerns of Flint residents, and who were not given straight answers by MDEQ:
Henry (GCHD), Walling (City of Flint), Muchmore (Gov Office) and Dykema (DHHS), Del Toral (EPA)
If the MDEQ employees had expended 1% of their effort spent covering up problems, towards doing their job and installing corrosion control as the law required, the switch to Flint River would now have been deemed a success instead of the epic man-made disaster it is. At this point, it is has also become one of the most astonishing engineering and science ethics case studies in human history—right up there with the Washington D.C. Lead Crisis 2001-2004.
Primary Author: Dr. Marc Edwards
Institutional Scientific Misconduct at U.S. Public Health Agencies: How Malevolent Government Betrayed Flint, MI
Dr. Edwards’ written testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the hearing titled, “Examining Federal Administration of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Flint, Michigan.”
Institutional Scientific Misconduct at U.S. Public Health Agencies:
How Malevolent Government Betrayed Flint, MI
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
The world is watching the Flint, MI 2015 Water Crisis unfold with astonishment. How is it possible, that the system designed to protect America’s children from the best known neurotoxin (lead) in their drinking water, has betrayed us?
The answer? Institutional Scientific Misconduct1 perpetrated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), primacy agencies (like the MDEQ) and water utilities. The very agencies paid to protect us, not only failed to do so, but also revealed their callous indifference to the plight of our most vulnerable.
Events in Flint, were inevitable, due to a lack of scientific integrity at the highest levels of these agencies, as illustrated by falsified reports exposed by my work over the last decade.
These include:
- The “scientifically indefensible” CDC 2004 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), that asserted 3 years of exposure to very high levels of lead in Washington D.C. drinking water, did not elevate blood lead of D.C. residents over CDC levels of concern.2
- A peer reviewed paper by a consultant to the Washington D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, presenting a falsified narrative and conclusion from the 2001-2004 Washington D.C. Lead Crisis. (Appendix A).
- An Orwellian re-write of history by CDC in a 2010 MMWR report, that claimed the conclusion of their 2004 report, was the exact opposite of what they actually wrote (Appendix B).
- An EPA report written to support an EPA policy on partial pipe replacements in Washington D.C., that ultimately wasted over $100 million dollars while increasing the incidence of childhood lead poisoning. After nearly a decade of denials, EPA finally acknowledged that the data supporting this report did not exist. Even so, EPA has refused to retract a report that has no data. (Appendix C).
- Some of the same EPA contractors, who authored the falsified EPA report supporting partial pipe replacements, wrote another peer reviewed article that reached the same falsified conclusion. The Journal of the American Water Works Association allowed publication of my “Discussion” of this paper (Appendix D), but refused to investigate the matter further or take decisive action.
While misconduct has always been a problem, at some level, since the earliest days of the scientific revolution, the rise of institutional scientific misconduct is a relatively new phenomenon. Clearly, we do not have adequate checks and balances on the power of these agencies, nor do we hold them accountable for their unethical actions.
There is a price to be paid for scientific misconduct, and unfortunately it is borne by the poorest amongst us, not by its perpetrators. We have to get this problem fixed, and fast, so that these agencies can live up to their noble vision and once again be worthy of the public trust.
1Lewis, D. Science for Sale (2014).
2Blood Lead Levels in Residents of Homes with Elevated Lead in Tap Water — District of Columbia, 2004. April 2, 2004 / 53(12);268-270
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Two Important Developments in The Flint Saga: Water Bill Relief and Lead Pipe Replacement
Yesterday witnessed two major developments on the Flint Water Crisis recovery story, demonstrating the type of bipartisanship “outside the box” thinking, that will help Flint get back on its feet.
First, only a few days after the Governor’s new task force first discussed the issue, financial relief for potable water bills is on the way for Flint residents. Essentially, the proposal would provide a credit to residents, that refunds the cost of potable water used for human consumption or use, during the time that Flint was not following federal corrosion control laws– with a few extra months added for good measure. This attempt to find such a rapid and reasonable compromise is unprecedented.
Second, Virg Bernero and his team came up from Lansing where they are gearing down their landmark lead pipe replacement program, to help Flint think about gearing up. With the expertise and experience of Bernero and his Lansing team who we partnered with back in 2004, it seems reasonable to think that if funding were made available (and we can determine where the lead pipes actually are!), Flint could safely and fully replace all their lead service line pipes in a few years.
We are already on record, suggesting that both federal and state funding should be made available, to make Flint a national model case study for pipe replacement.