FLINT, MI -- New preliminary results from water testing in Flint shows lead levels unchanged from the last six months of 2017, and the state Department of Environmental Quality says it's ready to turn the testing program back over to the city.
The DEQ told Flint Department of Public Works Director Robert Binscik that the state is handing off responsibility for Lead and Copper Rule testing in a letter June 14, the day before the preliminary results were announced by another agency official.
Since January 2016, the DEQ had assisted Flint with testing, a move that took place after the Flint water crisis was federally recognized and after state records showed the city disregarded regulations that required it to seek out homes with lead plumbing or pipes for testing.
City water officials filed certified documents that claimed they only submitted water samples from homes where residents were at the highest risk of lead poisoning but later acknowledged the samples were collected randomly.
The practice may have led the city and state to underestimate for months the extent to which lead was leaching into Flint's water.
"As of July 1, 2018, it is expected that the city resume complete responsibility for monitoring its water system for lead and copper," the letter from DEQ Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance Director Eric Oswald to Binscik says.
Oswald said the city will also assume responsibility for meeting the testing requirements in a settlement agreement with the Concerned Pastors for Social Action.
That agreement requires the city -- after all lead and galvanized service lines are replaced -- to collect at least one-half of its LRC samples during the months of May, June, July and August -- times when water quality is more difficult to maintain.
George Krisztian, an assistant director of DEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, said Friday, June 15, that Flint's 90th percentile for lead was 6 ppb in the first six months of the year, up since the state stopped bottled water deliveries to the city in April.
At that time, DEQ said testing had registered 4 ppb.
The federal action level for lead is 15 ppb.
Based on 224 Flint water samples, 95.1 percent were at or below 15 ppb, 88.8 percent at or below 5 ppb, and 58.1 percent at or below 1 ppb, Krisztian said.
Candice Mushatt, a spokeswoman for the city, did not immediately comment on the state's notice but the shift in responsibilities should not come as a surprise.
In October, the DEQ noted the expected change could come as early as January in a weekly report posted on its website.