Virginia Tech’s Flint Water Study Team will take its influential scientific detective work to more communities, thanks to an Environmental Protection Agency grant.
Edwards said the funding, which was announced Wednesday, will enable what he called the “largest engineering citizen-science project in American history.” Edwards, who teaches civil engineering, has been widely recognized for his work exposing a public water crisis in Flint, Michigan, caused by lead contamination.
He intends to create a widely applicable model that will encourage people to test their own water .
“In the end, it seems good work does get recognized,” Edwards said.
“All the work we did with consumers over the years and the students at Virginia Tech created this bottom-up organic science phenomena.
It created a tidal wave of understanding that couldn’t be ignored.
His lab already receives water samples around the country for testing.
With the additional money, Edwards hopes to identify more — and thus far neglected — communities with poor water quality that put people at risk.
Edwards faced oppotion from state and federal agencies by arguing that Flint’s water was inundated with lead particulate after local officials switched municipal water sources in 2014 to the economically depressed city as a strategy to save money.
Edwards and a team of Tech students, faculty and researchers worked with local residents to test the water and identify the source of lead contamination.