A boil-water alert Flint officials issued Tuesday remains in effect at least until bacteria testing is completed Thursday afternoon, the city said. 
 
 “A decision on whether to suspend the boil-water notice will be made once the results are in,” officials said in an update Wednesday. 
 
 The boil-water advisory was issued after a large water transmission line adjacent to Dort Highway broke Tuesday, which led to a water main break on Dupont, city officials said. 
 
 The break has since been contained, utilities administrator Michael Glasgow said in a statement Wednesday. 
 
 “The leak was completely isolated last night. Water pressures should be back at normal operating levels across the city,” he said. “Crews are still assessing the damage and starting on the actual repair of the affected water main.” 
 
 The area affected included a large swath between Clio and North Center roads. 
 
 As a precaution, city officials are warning residents to boil all filtered water for one minute then let it cool before using. Residents not using a filter are asked to flush the water for at least seven minutes before collecting to boil. 
 
 Air and loose sediment may be trapped in the water lines, but residents are urged to not flush their system through filters since that could affect performance, according to the advisory. 
 
 Flint’s lead-contamination problems trace to the city’s switch to Flint River water in April 2014 for its source of drinking water and the state’s failure to require corrosive controls. The state acknowledged the problem in October. 
 
 For information: (810) 766-7202. Tips on dealing with microbes also are available through 1-800-426-4791. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1XhhDaN ||||| FLINT, MI -- Water from Detroit is flowing into Flint again. 
 
 But it'll be about three weeks before all of the city's pipes are clear of water from the Flint River, city officials said Friday. 
 
 Mayor Dayne Walling announced Friday afternoon the city was reconnecting to Detroit Department of Water and Sewerage as a water source at 5 p.m. 
 
 The city held a press conference on Friday, Oct. 16, at Freeman Elementary to announce the switch would take place that evening. The school is one of three in the Flint School District that tested above 15 parts per billion for lead, the safety standard set by the federal government. 
 
 "When we learned that Flint's drinking water was contributing to high lead levels in Flint, it made me furious and this community was rightly outraged." Walling said. "My immediate reaction to learning from our doctors about high lead levels was to not take no for an answer from the Snyder administration and to insist that they approve and help fund the switch to a safe drinking water source from Detroit." 
 
 Detroit water was to be introduced into the Flint system throughout the evening. It is expected that the thorough replacement from Flint River water to Detroit water will happen after approximately three weeks, according to a news release from the city. Residents in Flint may see discoloration as well as noticing some taste and odor issues during the transition. 
 
 Water provided by DWSD will contain corrosion control agents to hinder the leaching of lead from old pipes into the water. However, the city will also be adding additional corrosion control agents to further minimize the risk presented by lead pipes, according to the release. 
 
 Walling said extraordinary efforts all around made the quick switch possible. 
 
 "The city council approved the $2 million pledge that was necessary from the city of Flint, because we had to take action -- that was approved by the transition advisory board. The Legislature moved quickly. The governor has signed the appropriation. The C.S. Mott Foundation has come forward." Walling said. 
 
 "But I have to tell you that it's the men and women in the water department who have worked tirelessly to get us to this point so quickly. All the work that had to get done with the transmission lines, with the testing, and with the cleaning so that today at 5 p.m. clean water from Detroit will begin flowing back into Flint's system," Walling said. 
 
 House Democratic leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) applauded an emergency measure that directed about $9.4 million in state funds to restore clean drinking water to Flint and take steps to help children affected by high lead levels. 
 
 "The actions of the governor's office and the governor-appointed emergency manager for Flint are the direct cause of the Flint water disaster," Greimel said in a statement. "Beyond that, we must hold the Department of Environmental Quality responsible as well. There were so many opportunities to stop this before it started, so many people this had to pass through, before the switch could be made, and not a single person looking at this saw families at risk. They saw dollar signs. Therefore, it's not just appropriate, but morally incumbent, on the state to restore clean water to families in Flint. These families are paying for the bad decisions made by the governor and his appointed administrators. It would be wrong to expect these families to pay extra to fix those mistakes." 
 
 According to a news release from Greimel's office, Under House Bill 4102, a supplement budget bill, the state will appropriate: 
 
 $6 million to connect Flint to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. 
 
 $1 million to test Flint water samples. 
 
 $1 million to purchase and install water filters. 
 
 $850,000 to the childhood lead program. 
 
 $500,000 to support programs. 
 
 Add three positions within the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to help oversee Flint's water system. 
 
 Walling echoed Greimel's sentiment, saying while he appreciated the quick action, the situation should never have happened. 
 
 "I appreciated the Legislature and the state's quick action on the issues when it was brought before them, but this was a crisis that should have never happened in the first place," Walling said. "Gov. Snyder and the emergency managers caused this problem, plain and simple, and we're making sure that they fix it." 
 
 Walling said the money from the state to reconnect to Detroit is just a start. He said he is going to demand tens of millions in additional investments in Flint's infrastructure and for the replacement of lead service lines. 
 
 The precautionary measures, such as water filters, currently being taken by residents should remain in place in the coming months, Walling said. 
 
 "I've also been heartened by the incredible outpouring of support from the entire community. I again want to say thank you," Walling said. "We came together, we provided for the needs of our most vulnerable kids and families, and those precautionary measures need to stay in place in the coming weeks and months. It's going to take time for the Detroit water to move through the system, for our pipes to be healed, for our families and our children who have been affected to be healed." 
 
 The reconnection comes after months of controversy after the city disconnected from Detroit in April 2014 and began drawing its water from the Flint River to save money. 
 
 Residents with questions or concerns about the hydrant flushing in their area can call the Water Service Center at 810-766-7202. Continuing information on water will be provided via the City of Flint's website, cityofflint.com. ||||| Exclusive: Documents seen by the Guardian reveal questionable practices that mean people’s drinking water is at risk in ‘every major city east of the Mississippi’ 
 
 Water authorities across the US are systematically distorting water tests to downplay the amount of lead in samples, risking a dangerous spread of the toxic water crisis that has gripped Flint, documents seen by the Guardian show. 
 
 The controversial approach to water testing is so widespread that it occurs in “every major US city east of the Mississippi” according to an anonymous source with extensive knowledge of the lead and copper regulations. “By word of mouth, this has become the thing to do in the water industry. The logical conclusion is that millions of people’s drinking water is potentially unsafe,” he said. 
 
 Documents seen by the Guardian show that water boards in cities including Detroit and Philadelphia, as well as the state of Rhode Island, have distorted tests by using methods deemed misleading by the Environment Protection Agency. 
 
 There is no suggestion that EPA regulations have been broken, but the agency’s guidelines have been systematically ignored. 
 
 The revelation comes as the growing crisis in Flint, Michigan, has prompted an emergency EPA order, the condemnation of Barack Obama and the resignation of a top agency official. 
 
 The documents show a pattern of behaviour in addressing public health concerns about water across the US where “gamed” tests help ensure that water utilities don’t breach federal lead and copper rules. 
 
 Dr Yanna Lambrinidou, a Virginia Tech academic, has disclosed what she considers to be evidence of deceptive practices by city water authorities after she sat on an EPA taskforce that reviewed federal rules on lead and copper poisoning that have been in place since 1991. 
 
 The taskforce ended its work last year, shortly before the full extent of the city of Flint’s problems with smelly, brown water hit the headlines, with Lambrinidou criticising the final report for failing to step up protections to prevent the corrosion of pipes, which leads to lead leaching into water supplies. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Residents of Flint, Michigan, have had to use bottled water after the domestic supply was found to contain high levels of lead. Photograph: Dennis Pajot/Getty Images 
 
 The documents were obtained by Lambrinidou under freedom of information laws and direct requests to water authorities. 
 
 They show that several cities have advised residents to use questionable methods when conducting official tests for lead content. These include encouraging testers to run taps for several minutes to flush out lead from the pipes or even removing the filter from taps. Such methods have been criticized by the EPA for not providing accurate results, with the agency telling authorities not to use them. 
 
 
 
 The Philadelphia water department’s instructions to residents in November last year were to “remove the aerator from the faucet. Leave the aerator off until sampling is completed”. This practice was deemed “against the intent of the monitoring protocol” in 2008 by the EPA, which advised against in 2006. 
 
 In an email to Lambrinidou in November 2015, a senior official at Philadelphia Water said: “We are trying to stay up on the latest science as best we can. We get confused by it and wish that a national forum of experts could get together and agree. But it’s often left to us to try and make sense out of everything that is published and talked about.” 
 
 Philadelphia also asks testers to “run only the cold water for two minutes” before taking a water sample. This practice of “pre-flushing” the pipes before testing water is repeated in instructions given to Michigan residents, between 2007 and 2015, by cities including Detroit, which requires water to be run for five minutes before testing, Grand Rapids, Andover, Muskegon, Holland and Jackson. 
 
 Rhode Island department of health documents ask testing residents to run their water “until cold” before sampling. In an email to Lambrinidou, a senior environmental scientist at the department said: “I know that the idea of flushing six hours prior is controversial but, as of now, within the regulations.” 
 
 Many of these cities also advise residents who conduct tests to put test water into a container in a slow and steady stream from the tap. Containers with small openings are provided to ensure this. Again, this tactic is thought to influence the amount of lead found in a typical sample. 
 
 Lambrinidou warned that the issue of misleading test results was widespread. “There is no way that Flint is a one-off,” she said.“There are many ways to game the system. In Flint, they went to test neighbourhoods where they knew didn’t have a problem. You can also flush the water to get rid of the lead. If you flush it before sampling, the problem will go away. 
 
 “The EPA has completely turned its gaze away from this. There is no robust oversight here, the only oversight is from the people getting hurt. Families who get hurt, such as in Flint, are the overseers. It’s an horrendous situation. The system is absolutely failing.” 
 
 The Centers for Disease Control is very clear about lead’s impacts on children. The agency emphasises that lead has no biological function in humans, and even the smallest exposure can developmentally impair children. 
 
 Multiple studies over decades have shown wide-ranging and serious health consequences, including death in cases of acute poisoning. One of the most insidious characteristics of lead exposure is the heavy metal’s accumulation in the body: over years lead is stored in kidneys, the liver, teeth and bones, and can be released during times of stress, when bones are broken and during pregnancy. 
 
 In children, acute lead exposure can be lethal, sending them into a coma, causing loss of motor control or causing “stupor” and hyper-irritability. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Water analysis test kits sit for Flint residents to pick up for lead testing in their drinking water. Photograph: Ryan Garza/AP 
 
 Lambrinidou’s Virginia Tech colleague Marc Edwards was one of the first scientists to highlight the risks posed to Flint residents by their drinking water. The duo have previously helped illuminate suspect lead testing procedures in Washington DC and produced evidence that the disturbance of pipes in Chicago was causing lead to seep into water flows. 
 
 In 2008, Cynthia Doughtery, director of the EPA’s office of ground water and drinking water, wrote to Alliance for Healthy Homes, which raised concerns about water in DC. Doughtery stated: “We do not understand why DC Water and Sewer Authority believes it should be necessary to request flushing only in households participating in the sampling. 
 
 “While this may fall within a strict legal interpretation of the regulations, we believe that it goes against the intent of the monitoring protocol.” 
 
 Federal regulations set a lead content limit of 15 parts per billion in drinking water. If more than 10% of “high risk” households are found to be above this limit, various procedures such as public information and water treatment are supposed to kick in. 
 
 The water is tested from the tap by residents who follow instructions from water departments. A report published last year, commissioned by the American Water Works Association, found that if the water was tested directly from lead pipes, up to 96 million Americans could be found to be drinking water with unsafe levels of lead. 
 
 The EPA has yet to decide whether to implement the recommendations of the lead and copper rule working group that Lambrinidou sat on. Paul Schwartz, national policy coordinator of Water Alliance, who assisted Lambrinidou during the taskforce, said the regulatory regime was inadequate. 
 
 “The industry’s own reports show that if large water utilities followed the EPA standard for sampling, they would routinely exceed the lead limit,” he said. “The EPA has been in a very cosy relationship with the state regulators and the water utilities. They’ve allowed themselves to be captured and they haven’t followed the science. 
 
 “What we have is a recipe for a public health disaster that is much larger than what we’ve seen so far. It will take us years to get out of this situation.” 
 
 The EPA was given a day to respond to the revelations but has not yet responded. 
 
 The revelations come after Susan Hedman, a regional EPA director for Michigan, resigned on Thursday. The head of the EPA, Gina McCarthy, also issued an emergency order requiring Michigan and the city of Flint to take immediate steps after determining that the response by the local governments has been “inadequate to protect human health”.
– Boil-water advisories aren't all that uncommon, but this one might have Flint residents feeling like they're the butt of a cosmic joke: A water main break has prompted the city to warn people to boil their water before drinking it. As CNN notes, this mostly applies to those using city water through filters installed on their taps in the wake of the lead crisis. But "residents not using a filter are asked to flush the water for at least seven minutes before collecting to boil," adds the Detroit News. The break resulted in a drop in water pressure that may have allowed bacteria into the system. As a headline at Fark succinctly puts it, "residents are being told to boil the water before they not drink it." (The mayor is promising that new pipes are in the works.)