Preliminary results of testing by the Environmental Protection Agency showed water filters were removing virtually all lead from residents’ taps.
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Water filters appear to be successfully removing lead from tap water in Flint, Michigan, an Environmental Protection Agency official told reporters on Thursday.
The EPA released preliminary results after testing the tap water and filtered water in 10 of the homes hardest hit by the water contamination crisis. The agency raised concerns last week that the filters — which are rated to remove lead at levels of 150 parts per billion — might not be up to the job of cleaning Flint's water, where lead levels had reached the thousands of parts per billion.
The EPA tested filters as they were installed in homes as well as filters with new cartridges.
"Luckily, all the results from both filters came back non detect to extremely low," the EPA's Mark Durno said.
The agency will continue to test water in Flint, where dozens of homes' water systems have shown high levels of lead. Durno noted that while Thursday's results were preliminary and only a small sample, they showed good news.
"That is encouraging," he said.
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High lead levels remain in unfiltered water, however, and more work will be necessary to determine exactly how lead is getting into water as well as how to stop it, Durno said.
Lead contamination became an issue after the city's water source was switched from Detroit to the Flint River in 2014. The more corrosive river water began leaching lead from old pipes within the city, contaminating drinking water, and leaving residents — particularly children — suffering the effects.
Though the water was switched back to Detroit's system in October, lead from the now corroded pipes has remained at levels hundreds of times above the limits considered acceptable by regulators.
"We can't say the corrosion control is working yet," Durno said on Thursday.
Testimony began Wednesday within the U.S. House of Representatives about how Flint's water became contaminated, and how the problem managed to endure for so long.
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