Water tests conducted at Flint homes by Wayne State University researchers

FLINT, MI -- Researchers from Wayne State University and volunteers from the United Way hit Flint's street Saturday to perform tests on residents' drinking water.

Dr. Shawn McElmurry is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This is the second major water sampling trip McElmurry has made to Flint since October.

McElmurry said his goal was to test more than 40 houses Saturday, Dec. 5, but he wasn't sure if researchers and volunteers would get to them all. He said he first started working with the city about four years ago to address infrastructure issues.

"I actually started working in Flint four years ago trying to address some of the infrastructure issues that occur when you have a shrinking population and deindustrialization when industry moves out but you still have that infrastructure for that large population and that big industry." McElmurry said. "That presents challenges how to manage it, not just financially, but from a water quality perspective as well as a delivery of service."

It had been more than a year since McElmurry had been in Flint, but he heard about the work Virginia Tech was doing testing the city's drinking water for lead. He said he wanted to help residents have a voice in the water crisis.

The three teams made up of United Way of Genesee County volunteers and staff and Wayne State University researchers tested residents' water for TTHM, lead, and other pollutants, chemicals, and metals. McElmurry said there are two important reasons to test the city's water.

"Number one water utilities are legally obligated to test their system. Their monitoring effort unfortunately is almost always the lowest minimum they can do to get by. That's certainly the case that was happening in Flint. They don't always ask the question about is it really good for public health? In order to do that you have to collect more samples and look at things a little bit differently. That's where we can come in. We can do things that aren't under the regulatory umbrella." McElmurry said. "The second reason is quite frankly there is a huge distrust of the water utility and the state for justifiable reasons. So it's a good check to balance."

Michele Talarico lives in Flint's College Cultural Neighborhood on the city's east side. Talarico said the issues with the water make her feel very wary. She is hoping the results from Saturday's testing will help move the state to do more to help Flint's residents.

"I'm encouraged to see additional educational and academic groups are getting interested in this. I'm hoping some of the test results will really push the state to assist the city with changing the service lines. I have no idea if our service line is lead or not. But I do know we are in the 48503 area which is one of the targeted areas." Talarico said. "I'm hopeful for this. We're lifelong Flint residents and I don't want to move. I'm not looking for bad results to make me move, I'm really hoping this is an additional push to make the state do something."

Janice Berryman has lived on Flint's south side for 71-years in the same house. Berryman has resorted to using large jugs of water from Culligan as well as buying bottled water. She said the only thing she uses the water for is very quick baths and washing dishes, and she's not happy about it.

"I'm very disillusioned with the attitude of the city that everything was fine when for almost a year-and-a-half we were forced to drink water from the Flint River that we all kept telling them something was wrong." Berryman said. "They acted like we were complete idiots, excuse the expression."

Berryman has had her water tested once by the city and again by Virginia Tech researchers. She said previously she had high TTHM levels, and now with both tests there were high lead levels.

The testing done Saturday will give Berryman a sense of relief knowing where the lead levels in her water are now.

"It makes me feel good because it will give a 'where am I now' since we're back on Detroit water." Berryman said. "Has it changed any? My feeling is that it probably hasn't because of the damage done to the infrastructure over the last year-and-a-half."

McElmurry was able to do the last two rounds of testing thanks to funding that came from Wayne State University. He said that money is about to run out following this round of testing, but hopes to get more funding.

In the meantime, McElmurry said residents should reach out to the city for free testing. He also said residents should continue to use NSF certified filters even if they get results back that show the water is safe.

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