LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A cash-strapped Michigan city that broke away from Detroit's water system to save money last year is now getting at least $1 million from the state for home water filters amid complaints its new system, which taps a local river, is linked to increased lead contamination in children's blood.
Gov. Rick Snyder announced the state funds for the city of Flint on Friday, a day after local health officials declared a public emergency following studies that showed local children had elevated lead levels in their blood. Snyder also said water at local schools would be immediately tested.
Questions about Flint's water supply started after the city began tapping the Flint River in an effort to save approximately $4 million annually. The temporary decision was made last year while a state emergency manager was shepherding Flint through a financial crisis.
However, residents soon began complaining about the water's smell and taste, and some reported rashes, hair loss and other health concerns. A General Motors plant stopped using the water because it was causing excessive rust. Local schools have urged students to avoid fountains.
The city's water is treated and the state says it meets federal safety guidelines, but tests have found the water is too corrosive and is releasing lead from old plumbing in and near thousands of homes. Doctors last week reported high levels of lead in local children's blood samples, also blaming water pipes.
"It appears from the data that there are some serious issues and concerns with what happens when that water reaches the home," Snyder said during a conference call with reporters on Friday.
The governor didn't rule out possibility reconnecting the city to Detroit's water system, saying it is an "active topic." The city planned to use the river pending the completion of a new regional pipeline in 2016.
Snyder also announced expanded health exposure testing, continued free water testing in homes, and quicker steps to ensure water from the Flint River is effectively treated.
"We understand many have lost confidence in the drinking water. We need to build that back. We need to do more," Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, said later during a news conference in Flint.
State officials are still investigating, but among the differences in how the cities treat their water is that the Detroit system, which taps Lake Huron, adds a corrosion control agent called orthophosphate to prevent lead in pipes getting into the water, said Brad Wurfel, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality.
Flint hadn't been doing that, but will start under the state's guidelines announced Friday. The state said a year of testing showed the city system exceeded the levels at which corrosion controls must be used. Wurfel said orthophosphate gathers on pipes' interior walls and forms a layer that reduces the water's exposure to lead.
Susan Hedman, regional head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, said the measures announced Friday - including corrosion control - were "important steps to protect public health" and would reduce lead levels in the city's water.
Some Flint residents were suspicious of the plan.
Bob Mabbitt, 39, said distributing filters is a "Band-Aid" fix because "not everybody's going to get a filter who really needs one."
"They're basically experimenting on the population of Flint while they figure this out," he said.
Arthur Woodson, 48, said Flint River water is "corrosive, automatically. They already knew that. ... Why can't we just go to our back-up resource, which is clean Detroit water?"
The Flint River's water quality, like many rivers in southern Michigan, was damaged before a regulatory crackdown on direct industrial and municipal discharges in the 1970s, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said in a 2001 report. Since then, degradation of the watershed has continued from runoff from farms, parking lots, septic systems and other sources.
Still, the Flint water system has been tested for about 90 contaminants - including lead - and complies with federal drinking water standards, Wurfel said.
In September, Virginia Tech researchers released a report saying Flint's water was creating a health threat in old homes that have lead pipes or pipes fused with lead solder. Flint officials said they know which homes have risky pipes but the information is on about 45,000 index cards and difficult to retrieve.
State health officials on Friday confirmed the findings and said there were elevated levels of lead in blood in two local ZIP codes.
The Genesee County Health Department declared a public health emergency on Thursday. A coalition of residents and national groups also petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to order the state to reconnect Flint to Detroit water.
The city is now telling residents to use only cold water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula, and recommending they use the certified filters. The General Motors Foundation, the local United Way and others have given at least $105,000 to buy filters for 5,000 residents.