Mother Jones, a nonprofit news organization, recently posted this update on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. That article reports that testing of unfiltered water in 493 Flint homes found:
87% have water with lead content of 5 parts per billion (ppb) or less (considered safe for everyone to drink, even small children)
9% have lead content of 6-15 ppb (considered safe for adults, needs to be filtered for children)
3% have lead levels between 16-100 ppb (considered unsafe unless filtered)
1% have lead levels above 100 ppb (considered unsafe even with a filter)
For some context on these numbers, this CNN report notes that scientists at Virginia Tech tested water at the home of one Flint woman in 2015 and “found the lead level was as high as 13,200 ppb.”
While the water quality in Flint is improving, the process of fixing all the water service lines is still going to take some time. On the positive side, a decreasing number of homes have to rely solely on bottled water. Most home drinking water in Flint is now safe as long as a water filter is in place.
As the Mother Jones article states: “The filters are critical here. About 99 percent of Flint homes have safe water as long as a filter is properly installed and maintained.”
