Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is “not impressed” by Governor Snyder’s pledge to drink only Flint water for the next 30 days.
The governor made the pledge to drink filtered Flint water yesterday.
“I’m going to start drinking that tonight and do that for the next 30 days … when I’m at work and at home,” Snyder told reporters on Monday. The governor says he wants to be a “role model” to show filtered Flint tap water is safe to drink.
“Lucky for him that he can drink filtered water,” Mayor Weaver told reporters today, “because we’ve been dealing with this for two years. And we were drinking it when it wasn’t filtered.”
Weaver suggests the governor can do more than just drink water taken from a faucet in Flint.
“He needs to come and stay here for 30 days and live with us,” says Weaver, “and see what it is like to have to use bottled or filtered water when you want to cook and when you want to drink and when you want to brush your teeth.”
The governor’s office issued a statement insisting filtered Flint tap water is safe to drink:
“A team of water quality experts from the DEQ, the EPA and Virginia Tech have all agreed the data proves it is safe to use filtered water as a primary source of drinking water. The test results they reviewed indicate that filters are extremely effective in removing lead from water, even at very high levels.”
Next month, local, state and federal officials are urging Flint residents to take part in a two-week effort to flush their pipes. Water customers are being asked to run their faucets for five minutes a day. The idea is to flush out lead particles, and help biofilm in the pipes to reform.
The state is picking up the tab for the extra water use.
But beyond holding news conferences to encourage Flint residents to start flushing their pipes daily starting May 1, it’s unclear if there will be a more detailed ground campaign to get the message out door to door in all parts of the city.
