West News Wire: The troubled water system in Flint, Michigan, is currently causing yet another problem for the city’s residents.
After a water main ruptured early on Friday, lowering the system’s overall pressure below safe levels, Flint issued a citywide boil water order.
Officials reported that workers had been able to find the damaged 24-inch transmission line and start repairs. According to public notice, the repairs, flushing, and required testing are expected to last at least until Monday, leaving the city’s roughly 80,000 people to boil filtered water or use bottled water over the weekend.
The City of Flint referred to the boil-water alert as a “precaution” in a Facebook post.
“We are estimating right now, if everything goes well, by Monday we will be all clear with this,” Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley said at a press conference. “The repair is underway right now.”
The call for bottled water use comes a month after a program that previously provided free bottled water to residents ended, though the city still offers water filters.
Flint officials have not identified the cause of Friday’s main break. The notice mentioned that the reservoir and pump station at fault was scheduled for renovation later this year.
“As the City of Flint continues to upgrade our water infrastructure, we need to keep in mind that the integrity of our infrastructure is uneven,” Department of Public Works Director Mike Brown said. “Some of it is state of the art, and some of it is very old.”
The failure of the water main caused a drop in water pressure citywide Friday morning, prompting the boil water advisory. Officials notified the public about the main break on Flint’s city website shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time on Friday; Less than an hour later, officials said they located the break and enacted the boil water advisory.
The federal Safe Water Drinking Act’s public notification rule includes requirements to notify the public about the loss of water pressure in drinking water systems. Michigan’s Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division notes that a low-pressure event can allow contaminants to enter a water supply; however, the declaration of a boil water advisory during a low-pressure event can be made on a case-by-case basis.
Flint suffered a years-long water crisis in 2014 after budget cuts prompted a change in the city’s water source. According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, allowing lead to leach into the supply and expose residents to the carcinogenic substance.
Research from the University of Michigan later indicated that children in Flint were exposed to triple the lead compared to children a decade earlier.
