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What's Putting Lead Into the Water in Flint, Michigan?

Researchers say road salt is causing dangerously high lead levels in the city’s water.
Lemott Thomas carries free water being distributed at the Lincoln Park United Methodist Church in Flint, Michigan, in February 2015. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Last summer, after decades of piping in water from Detroit, the city of Flint, Michigan, turned on the valve to its own Flint River. Reporters heralded the new water source for Flint’s 100,000 citizens as a proud symbol of the city’s independence from Detroit. “It will take two days before Flint residents can taste history,” one local news story proclaimed. The local water was toast-worthy at one city ceremony:

The story now reads as ironic, for Flint’s arrangement is not working out well. Soon after the switch was made, residents began to complain about the taste, smell, and appearance of their water. Problems arose with the disinfectants used to clean it. The city is now in the throes of controversy around the river water’s quality.