LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will drink Flint water at home and at work for at least a month to show to residents it is safe with the use of a faucet filter, he said Monday.
The Republican governor, who has apologized for his administration’s role in the city’s lead-tainted water crisis, visited a house that had been confirmed to have high levels of lead and left with five gallons of filtered water. He said he understands people feel that if officials say the water is OK, then he should drink it, too.
“What better way to help show support,” said Snyder, who will get refills from other homes as needed.
For nearly 18 months, Flint residents drank and bathed with improperly treated water that had coursed through aging pipes and fixtures, scraping away lead. By the time Snyder announced in October that Flint would return to its earlier source of treated water, the Detroit municipal system, dangerously high levels of the toxic metal were detected in the blood of some residents, including children, for whom it can cause lower IQs and behavioral problems.
Meanwhile, a state water-quality official who told the city of Flint that a chemical wasn’t needed to prevent lead corrosion from pipes has taken a different job in the state Department of Environmental Quality.