Swift Federal Action Moves Flint Toward Recovery

Swift federal action moves Flint toward recovery

March 4, 2016

By: Dr. Nicole Lurie, HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response

Since January 19, when President Obama designated HHS as the lead federal agency responsible for coordinating the Administration’s response and recovery efforts in Flint, we have made significant headway. Across the federal family, we are focused on helping state and local officials ensure access to safe water, restore the water system, address health issues and take actions to mitigate the effects of lead on kids’ development by increasing access to nutrition, healthcare and early childhood interventions. Here are some of the highlights of the progress that HHS, EPA, USDA, HUD, SBA, Education, Commerce and FEMA have made to support the people of Flint:

Ensuring safe water and restoring the system:

We’ve helped improve access to bottled water for 99 percent of residents.
FEMA has provided over 2 million liters of bottled water, over 55,000 water and pitcher filters and over 236,000 filter replacement cartridges.
EPA is making sure that the water system will ultimately become safe, and is testing lead and copper levels, chlorine levels, water filters effectiveness, whether lead in homes is coming from the home or service lines, and overall water quality. EPA teams have collected over 2,000 samples from more than 200 homes. EPA’s tests show that the necessary coating is rebuilding in city pipes and lead levels are dropping.

Dozens of AmeriCorps and SeniorCorps volunteers are distributing water and filters, managing donations, helping place 2,000 community volunteers and teaching school children about water safety and nutrition.
READ MORE: Swift federal action moves Flint toward recovery