Fox 2 News reached out to me about our water system, so I replied. Rob Baker, not yet sworn in as a Council member, and I made our way to City Hall to make sure that the City was able to discuss what was happening. The other Council members could not make it on such short notice.
A pregnant mother had lab results showing it was possible her child had an elevated level of lead in their blood. This is the tragic situation that happened system-wide in Flint. I hoped that the test was a false positive for the woman, but wanted to ensure the rest of the City that this was not what happened in Flint. If she did in fact have elevated levels of lead, it would be due to her service line, and not due to a system-wide issue. This is a much easier issue to address, as replacing the service line would effectively resolve the issue going forward. There are 1,313 lead lines throughout the City that will be replaced over the next twenty years. We will continue to treat our water, through GLWA, so that these lead lines do not need to be immediately removed. Treating the water prevents the lead from leaching into the water. The water was not treated in Flint, creating a system-wide issue. That has never happened with the GLWA system. The water in Eastpointe is safe to drink.