U-M engineers offer insights into Flint water crisis

Water quality researchers at the U-M College of Engineering are concerned about several long-term aspects of the Flint drinking water crisis and they’re keeping close tabs on the unfolding situation.

Faculty members in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering expressed worry over the extended use of certain household water filters, Flint’s future drinking water quality, and the broad impacts of the crisis on the city’s residents, economy and environment.

Flint’s drinking water was contaminated with lead after the city switched sources from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a way to save money in 2014. High levels of the toxin have since been found in the city’s children. In addition, experts believe that an outbreak of the bacterial infection Legionnaires’ disease – which killed 10 – is connected to the switch.

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