Flint Water: A Political Football. Part 7

On our timeline we are a "T = September 21, 2015" and the MDEQ and the city of Flint are still acting as if there isn't a problem.

On September 9th, Marc Edwards with Virginia Tech writes an email to the mayor of Flint, Dayne Walling:

I understand how you could have been misled. All I can tell you, is that from a scientific and engineering perspective, everything in Mr. Del Toral’s memo was 100% accurate. I verified many of the facts personally myself.  The rest is perfectly obvious to someone with any reasonable training and experience in the field.

I too could not find anything wrong with EPA's Del Toral's memo.

I am sorry that MDEQ did not take his memo seriously, and that they did not cause the City of Flint to consider corrosion control from the start of this process. It was their job to do so. I have no idea what MDEQ’s agenda is, but based on their press releases and actions to date, protecting the public and following Federal laws, does not seem to be a priority.

Remember that "primacy" thing I wrote about? That's my contention as well.

The mayor then sends an email that very same day to Susan Hedman with the EPA about Marc Edwards' recent findings:

September 10th we get this bit of news:

The EPA said that while city water is within allowable levels for lead, it has "recommended that Flint implement corrosion control treatment as soon as possible since the city's lead service lines can leach lead into the drinking water if left untreated."

  From that same news article we learn this:

Virginia Tech students and faculty have posted the results of 252 water tests from Flint online, concluding the city has "a very serious lead in water problem."

The Virginia Tech testing so far has shown 10 percent of the water samples from across the city tested at 25 parts per billion of lead or more -- far more than the allowable level -- 15 ppb -- set in federal guidelines.

Overall, the Virginia Tech testing showed 16.7 percent of Flint samples showed more than 15 ppb of lead.

And...

Meanwhile, the city's official test results show 90 percent or more of the samples are 15 ppb or less, according to the state, and the water is meeting all standards for safety.

Okay, so data wise, by September 10th we know this for pretty gosh-darn certain:

• 104 ug/L that jumped to 397 ug/L after ferric chloride was added.
• Home #2 (4614 Bryant Street) indicate that the portion of the service line from the external shut-off valve to the water main is likely made of lead, which is consistent with the historical practice in Flint. The sampling had a high lead result (peak value) of 22 ug/L.
• Water at 216 Browning Avenue (using a firstdraw, pre-flushed sampling protocol) yielded a high lead result (22 ug/L). 
• Water at 631 Alvord Avenue, yielded a high lead result (42 ug/L).
• Removal of the old service line to the Walters' home showed all kitchen tap and bathroom tap results for lead and copper were low, confirming that the sources of lead were external to the home.
• 10% of 252 water samples tested at 25 parts per billion of lead or more.
• 16.7 percent of Flint samples have been shown to have more than 15 ppb of lead.

So what does MDEQ's Communications Director Brad Wurfel have to say about that?

Flint residents "who have lead pipes or a lead service connection had lead in their water at some level before this issue was in the newspaper ...  before the switch to the Flint River, Optimizing (corrosion control) can minimize impacts, but it won't alleviate the issue."

Now you can kind of see why the guy was asked to resign. Just in case you may be confused here, the LCR requires corrosion control.  Corrosion control was what they were required to do and what they should have done when they were told by Del Toral of the issue. The goal of corrosion control is to get the lead that leaches from these old pipes to as low as possible.

Had they done that, in the very early days, all these folks would still have a job and I would not be writing these long-winded posts.

You can file this next email under "you are only as good as the people you listen to."

It's around September 30th that the wheels really start to come off their spin machine. Let me remind you, at this point we have not talked about that other data out there regarding the blood-lead levels.

October 7th, 2015:

"Actions that the state of Michigan and the city of Flint announced last week are important steps to protect public health," said Susan Hedman, the EPA's administrator for the region. "The immediate steps being taken to implement corrosion control will reduce lead in drinking water, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act. U.S. EPA will continue to provide technical assistance to the state of Michigan and the city of Flint to support their joint effort." [source]

Would you look at that! Just what the Del Toral's EPA memo back in June recommended.  Imagine that!

Right before this, around September 24-25th:

A group of doctors led by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Medical Center in Flint urges the city to stop using the Flint River for water after finding high levels of lead in the blood of children. State regulators insist the water is safe. [source]

I wonder what data we can get from that?

Next post: Flint Water: A Political Football.  Part 8