VILLAGE OF MANCHESTER, Mich. (WXYZ) — Samantha Tank met up with two nurses from the Washtenaw County Health Department outside their mobile unit where they were offering free lead testing Friday.
Tank held her six-month-old son, Brooks, as one of the nurses made a little prick on the bottom of his tiny feet to take a sample of blood to send off for testing.
"He's not really consuming that much water at this point but I am so we just had some concerns," she said.
And Tank's home is one of 19 residences in the village where the tap water was recently tested for lead.
At seven of the homes, the lead levels were over the "Action Level."
Village officials offered the following on their website:
The “Action Level” is not a health-based standard, but it is a level that triggers additional actions including, but not limited to, increased investigative sampling of water quality and educational outreach to customers in accordance with the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act. The goal for lead in drinking water is 0 ppb; there is no safe level of lead in the blood.
Village officials said they have about 800 homes receiving their municipal water supply that comes from three wells. And while most of the water lines feeding into neighborhoods and to homes are copper and plastic, some are still lead and galvanized lines.
In the coming weeks, some of the water supply lines to the homes where high levels of lead were detected will be changed over to plastic and copper.
Other households where lead was still detected during the recent tests will be encouraged to use lead-reducing filters until the village replaces the supply lines.
For the lead pipes that run from the street to a home, the village will cover the cost of the pipe replacement.
If you do have a lead water line, village officials are urging you to "clean your aerators and should flush water from the pipes for at least five minutes by running faucets, taking a shower, washing dishes, or doing a load of laundry."
If you have questions or concerns about your child's exposure to lead, please contact your pediatrician for a lead blood level test. For questions about children's exposure to lead, please contact Jane Nickert, Public Health Nursing Director, at 734-544-9735.
You can also find more information on the Village's website: https://vil-manchester.org/lead-and-copper-testing-update/
