Rick Snyder’s (R) administration stopped delivering free bottled water to Flint in April, citing fiscal concerns, lowered lead levels, and the fact that every household in the city of about 100,000 has been supplied with water filters.
Nor do they replace them as frequently as they should, volunteers told Rewire.News.
Furthermore, there are residents who, for physical reasons or otherwise, are not able to use the filters as they are made to be used,” Pauli said.
For this reason, the Genesee County Medical Society and Genesee County Health Department have recommended that children under 6, pregnant women, and immunocompromised residents continue to use bottled water.” There are good reasons for residents to demand free bottled water as a matter of right, Pauli said.
By then “we anticipate we will have donated approximately 3.2 million bottles of water to the City of Flint and served our communities more than 1,100 gallons of water from our (mobile) Ice Mountain Hydration Station,” said Jason Manshum, community relations manager at Nestlé Waters North America in an email.
Meanwhile, a July 19 report from the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) titled “Management Weaknesses Delayed Response to Flint Water Crisis” found that the EPA failed to intervene earlier and stop the water crisis in Flint.
The church was one of the state’s bottle distribution sites that closed in April, but people still come by and have to be turned away.
It’s full of bacteria and chlorine,” Jones said.
City officials have never tested the water in her home, she said.
“There’s no reason that the state that’s home to 21 percent of the earth’s fresh water should have a community full of people who can’t bathe their children or give them a glass of water at the dinner table,” she said in an email.