Flint — The city will avoid closure of all of its water distribution sites after residents pressured government leaders to keep the bottled water flowing.
Rick Snyder’s office and the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, announced Wednesday the city and state had reached an agreement to allow four water distribution sites, known as PODS, to remain open indefinitely.
Under a settlement reached earlier this year, the state “could start closing the PODS, and we know that all of the PODS were scheduled to close this September,” Weaver said.
The agreement allows for four distribution sites to remain open under normal hours on each side of the city: Mt.
Five PODS will close and do so on two dates.
The PODS located in the 2nd Ward at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church and the in the 3rd Ward at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church will close on Aug. 11.
“The system has made dramatic improvements where in 2016, the 90th percentile for city was testing at 20 parts per billion from January through June,” Creagh said.
Baird said the state felt just because it could close all of the PODS it “doesn’t mean we should exercise that authority.” Baird added the “all-in” cost for maintaining the distribution sites “is about $2 million a month,” and that it’s important for the state to have a timeline to end distribution.
Pisgah Baptist Church and spokesman for the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, said even though the water quality is improving, “we don’t want to give people a determined closure date.” “Because people will start to horde water and then the water they have will go bad,” Hill said.
“One of the primary goals of this partnership, is to ensure people that they will have access to good, clean water.” The city’s water became contaminated with lead after state-appointed emergency managers switched Flint’s drinking water source in April 2014 from the Detroit area water system to the Flint River.