Michigan and federal officials are backing off an estimate they made last week that Flint residents could be drinking clean water by August.
On Monday, they said there is no specific timeline government officials are working on to restore clean drinking water to the eastern Michigan town, whose water is contaminated with lead. Last week, a letter from a federal official to a Michigan State Police captain indicated state and federal authorities estimated residents could be drinking clean water again by August.
The tap water in Flint has been undrinkable for months after it was revealed lead is contaminating the drinking water supply. The water now is being treated with corrosion control to keep lead from leaching off pipes and into drinking water. Despite a public statement estimating that work could be done by May 1, officials are backing off that deadline.
Robert Kaplan, acting regional administrator for the EPA’s Region 5, said the EPA has not put a date on when the lead pipes in Flint will be recoated.
“EPA’s evaluation of the water system is ongoing, and is based on extensive and continuing sampling efforts. EPA has never projected a fixed date for ‘rescaling of the water pipes’ in Flint,” Kaplan said.
“As EPA Administrator [Gina] McCarthy has said repeatedly, EPA is here for the people of Flint and we’re not leaving until the water system is back on track. We are committed to making sure the people of Flint have the protection and the peace of mind that everyone in this country deserves.”
A letter sent on March 25 from Elizabeth Zimmerman, associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to Michigan State Police Capt. Chris Kelenske said the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality determined the pipes would be recoated with corrosion control by May 1.
The letter went on to state that the tap water would be safe to drink three months after the corrosion control treatment was complete.
“The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have determined that the rescaling of the water pipes to prevent lead from leading into the water supply is estimated to be completed by May 1, 2016,” Zimmerman wrote in the letter.
“You further indicate that health officials recommended that citizens drink only filtered or bottled water until three months following the successful rescaling of the pipes and the water is deemed safe for human consumption without having to use an appropriate filter.”
Representatives from the EPA directed questions about the discrepancy between Kaplan’s statement and Zimmerman’s letter to FEMA.
Ari Adler, a spokesman for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, said the May 1 date was given for planning purposes and was not meant to be a specific deadline for having water quality restored to Flint. He said the state wouldn’t be holding itself to a deadline.
“We would obviously like to have quality water flowing through the pipes at people’s homes as soon as possible,” Adler said. “But Gov. Snyder says that is only possible when the state has scientific data proving the quality and that data has been reviewed and concurred with among state, federal and independent water-quality experts.”
In April 2014, a state emergency manager appointed by Snyder signed off on a symbolic vote from the Flint City Council to change the city’s water source. The move aimed to cut costs by requiring the city to take its water from the Flint River instead of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department while a new pipeline was built to connect the city to Lake Huron.
The Flint River water, however, was so acidic that it caused the lead pipes bringing water from the city’s cast iron mains into homes to corrode. Lead leached off the pipes and into the drinking water throughout the city.
The state and the federal government have declared a state of emergency.
A state report released last week said the state government caused, and bungled its response to, the crisis.
The announcement that Flint’s water could be safe to drink by August came in Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s announcement that FEMA extended the federal emergency in Flint until Aug. 14.
The extension means federal supplies of bottled water, water filters, cartridges for those filters and testing kits for water can continue to come for four more months. The state government estimates residents will be able to drink their water by the time the emergency expires.
