“I still will never, ever going to drink out of the faucet ever again.” Officials have told Flint, Michigan residents that the water quality from the tap has vastly improved five years on, but Jamie Marshall still relies on donations of bottled water.
Jacob Uherek holds an open bottle of water in one hand and brushes his teeth with the other at his kitchen sink in his Flint, Michigan, home.
Ukerek's wife, Jamie Marshall, gets to the sink with Michael, 4, and pours water into a Thomas the Tank Engine cup for 2-year-old Rafael to rinse. Though state and independent monitors have tested the water in Flint, officials acknowledge that improved test results can only go so far in a community that no longer trusts its water -- or government.
But the water from the Flint river wasn't treated with the right chemicals, wore away the protective coating meant to prevent older pipes from corroding, and allowed lead to leach into the same water that residents were using to drink, cook and bathe.It came out of the faucet brown, clogged filters and caused skin rashes. The state maintained the water was safe and residents continued to use it.
At this point, it's"a matter of personal preference" for families if they're comfortable using the water, Eric Oswald, director of the drinking water program at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, told ABC News. "They still have to figure out how to trust the community, the government, again after this is all happened. And that stands in the way of moving forward in other ways," she told ABC News.
Jeffrey Hawkins, pastor at Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, said distribution is another issue. Volunteers from his church deliver water to an estimated 4,000 seniors and other residents who can't get to one of the distribution centers."Those three sites cannot, in no shape form or fashion, give water supply to the entire city. It just can't happen," Hawkins said.
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