GENESEE-2014-05-27.pdf; FlintO04-2014MOR.pdf
Mark--as we discussed earlier this week, below is a briefing containing the information we discussed regarding the Flint,
Michigan water supply. | am out of the office this coming week: if you have questions, please cortact Torn Poy, Ground
Water and Drinking Water Branch Chief.
Thank yoru for your thr!
Jannifer
Drinking Water in Flint, Michigan
ISSUE: Flint began Flint River water as their drinking water source on April 25, 2014, and
beginning in mid-May, there have been numerous complaints to the Region 5 Ground Water and Drinking Water Branch
regarding the drinking water, including rotten egg smell, swamp water smell, people developing rashes. The Region
immediately contacted and involved the Drinking Water program at the Michigan Dept of Environmental Quality
(MDEQ).
BACKGROUND: Flint has been purchasing finished drinking water from Detroit for decades (source water is Lake
Huron). It has been delivered by a large single pipeline from Detroit. In the late 1980’s, the State drinking water staff
requested that Flint renovate their old surface water treatment plant to meet the State’s redundancy requirements, in
case the single pipeline from Detroit was unable to transmit finished drinking water. Flint would treat Flint River water
periodically throughout the year, to verify that the water treatment plant (WTP) was able to treat Flint River water that
met Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) standards.
Over the past 15 years or so, Detroit has seen a decrease in its City population, and an increase in poverty/low income
residents. Detroit currently has an Emergency Manager due to poor financial situation. (As an aside, last year the City of
Highland Park told Detroit it was unable to pay its water/sewer bills, and currently has an Emergency Manager. Highland
Park was unable to obtain funding to retrofit its surface water treatment plant, so Detroit is providing water/sewer
currently to Highland Park for free.) In order to continue to provide adequately treated water that meets SDWA Health
standards, the suburbs have been subsidizing the lower income residents for years. Consequently, communities like
Flint have decided to find an alternate source of drinking water.
A regional water authority was formed in 2010, the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), which will serve water in mid-
Michigan and the Thumb areas. Members of the KWA include Flint, Lapeer; and Genesee, Lapeer and Sanilac Counties.
The KWA is currently constructing the Karegnondi pipeline to bring raw water from Lake Huron. It will be completed in
about 2 years. Flint has an Emergency Manager now, and | think on paper, it looked like a savings to pump and treat
Flint River water for the 2-year interim period prior to connecting to the Karegnondi pipeline, than to continue to pay
Detroit prices for finished drinking water. MDEQ has worked long and hard with the City of Flint and water operators to
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get the WTP ready to treat Flint River water for the next few years. Complete operation/treatment began April 25,
2014.
In mid-May, Region 5 Ground Water and Drinking Water Branch began receiving calls from Flint citizens regarding the
quality of the Flint drinking water. Complaints include rotten egg smell, swamp water smell, people developing rashes. |
talked with Richard Benzie, the Community Drinking Water Unit Chief, at MDEQ about any possible chemical releases
into the Flint River, and neither he nor Mike Prysby, the Lansing District engineer for Flint, have heard of anything such
as this. The normal procedure of chemical releases is that Mike Prysby and Richard would be alerted/notified through
the Pollution Emergency Alert System (PEAS), and that hasn’t happened.
Mike Prysby has been working quite closely with the Operator-in-Charge at the Flint Water Treatment plant to prepare
the WTP and operators to treat the Flint River water. Attached are several analytical results: July 2013 Test Run of
Phase 2/5 contaminants conducted on the Flint River, sampled in July 2013; no exceedances are noted; detects of
barium and selenium. The April 2014 Monthly Operation Report (MOR) which includes bacteriological analyses, was
finalized in mid-May (includes only April 25-30 operation activity) with the following test results (sampled in May 2014),
that were provided last week by Steve Busch, the MDEQ Supervising District Engineer: Total Organic Carbon (TOC),
Metals, Volatile Organic Carbon (VOC), Synthetic Organic Contaminants (SOC) (all 3 categories), and partial chemistry
(which includes nitrates). As the WTP only operated for the last 6 days in April, the MOR results provide limited
information. The Bacteriological Portion of the May Operating Period were due 6/10, but the operational monitoring
won’t be reported until 6/30.
FINDINGS: So, bottom line—yes, the raw water is a different quality and more variable than Lake Huron raw water that
Detroit is using. The Flint River is not as high a quality water as Lake Huron, but they are pretreating with ozone,
conducting softening to reduce hardness and organic precursors, and are working with chlorine application. And, the
Flint River is an interim source of raw water until the Karognondi pipeline is constructed to bring raw Lake Huron water
to Flint for treatment.
When you look at the July 2013 Test Run analyses attached, note:
The sample was taken at the Filter Effluent—normally it would be taken at the plant tap, but they were running Flint
River water through most of the plant last summer to test treatment, and the filters were the last stop before the clear
well/plant tap which were filled with Detroit water they were serving last year. Note: Trihalomethanes (TTHM) are
detected, but no exceedances. Detects could be due to: Softening had not been introduced to the treatment process
last summer which would reduce the hardness and also remove some of the organic precursor that would add to TTHM
levels. Softening is being conducted now in the treatment process. Last summer, chlorine was added in mid-treatment
which also could have added to the TTHM level. Now, chlorine is added just before the filters. Also, since it’s summer
surface water, there will be more run-off, thus more precursor in the raw water. Mike Prysby, the MDEQ District
Engineer, believes that today’s operation of the plant and quality of drinking water produced is much better than the
test runs done over the past year, due to the adjusting of the treatment, such as the softening process and the chlorine
application.
Mike received Flint’s first Monthly Operation Report (MOR) for the timeframe of April 25-30. Ozone pretreatment is
provided to the raw water, and there is ozone destruction at the end of the pretreatment. The Filter Effluent has never
been over 0.3 NTU, the ave range is 0.12-0.21 NTU. The chlorine residual at the plant tap is 0.9-1.0 free chlorine. The
distribution chlorine residual ranged from 0.7-1.0 of free chlorine, which is acceptable. Bacti samples are pulled every 3-
4 hours starting on April 25-30, and all were clear.
CONCLUSION: The analyses show some detects of regulated contaminants, but no exceedances. Thus, we have no
report on any regulated contaminant that might be causing rashes, and the complaints we’re hearing. | did ask Steve
Busch at MDEQ, if there was a possibility of the existence of cyanotoxins from algae on the Flint River. Steve has worked
with systems in Southeast Michigan and with Ohio EPA on algae issues, and he didn’t think the conditions of the Flint
River would support an algae bloom that would cause cyanotoxins to be present.
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We would like to know if ATSDR would be interested in looking into this situation, to determine if there are other
unregulated contaminants causing complaints of poor water quality.
Mike Prysby: 517-290-8817;
[email protected].
Steve Busch: 517-643-2314;
[email protected]
Jennifer
Jennifer Kurtz Crooks
Michigan Program Manager/Set-Aside Coordinator
Ground Water and Drinking Water Branch
U.S. EPA, Region 5
77 West Jackson Blvd., WG-15)
Chicago, Illinois 60604
(312) 886-0244
(312) 582-5853 (fax)
[email protected]
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