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Virginia Tech starting new round of Flint water tests

Steve Carmody
/
Michigan Radio

A new round of testing could show if the amount of lead in Flint’s drinking water is declining.

Virginia Techresearchers will send testing kits to people in Flint this week. The researchers spent Friday assembling 300 kits.  

Researcher Siddhartha Roy says they are testing the same homes they did back in August and September.  Those tests revealed unsafe levels of lead.

They also expect to see lower lead levels.

Roy says preliminary tests suggest Flint’s drinking water is recovering after being switched back to Detroit water in October.

“The hope is, when we do a citywide sampling again, we would see a similar pattern,” says Siddhartha Roy.

Roy expects to get the testing kits returned in the next month.

Recent tests have shown roughly 7% of Flint homes have elevated levels of lead in their tap water.   

Steve Carmody has been a reporter for Michigan Public since 2005. Steve previously worked at public radio and television stations in Florida, Oklahoma and Kentucky, and also has extensive experience in commercial broadcasting.