Panel to Advise State on Reducing Lead in Drinking Water
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A panel of experts is being assembled to advise Michigan officials on how to reduce lead in drinking water.
The creation of the seven-member panel was announced Friday by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
Academic and water system engineering experts will be selected for the panel which will meet on a regular schedule and be available as a resource on an as-needed basis, EGLE said.
The state is pushing efforts to reduce lead exposures caused by aging water distribution infrastructure in several communities with the goal of removing lead contamination from drinking water statewide.
The agency said its Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division regulates 2,685 public drinking water systems under the state’s Lead and Copper Rule.
Last month, the state said it would provide bottled water and water filters in Benton Harbor, where tests have revealed elevated levels of lead.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has called for spending $20 million in Benton Harbor to replace nearly 6,000 service lines, most suspected of containing lead, within five years.
Benton Harbor is in the southwestern corner of Michigan, roughly 200 miles from Flint, where lead flowed through old pipes in 2014-15 because water pulled from a river wasn’t properly treated to reduce corrosion.
Related News
From Archive
- 290-mile gas pipeline expansion proposed across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Body retrieved day after fatal trench collapse at Bakersfield, Calif., job site
- $227 million Garnet Valley water project advances, set to create 73,000 jobs in Nevada
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
- Gehl and Mustang offer world’s largest skid loader
- Growing Pains and Gains
- Authorities investigating trench collapse that killed worker in Ashburn, Va.
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
Comments