In a bid to buy time to replace its lead-leaching aged water pipes, officials in the city of Milwaukee plan to pass out water filters to the general public to avoid a brain-damaging repeat of what happened in Flint, Michigan earlier this year.

As reported by OnMilwaukee, city officials are currently debating how best to replace aged lead-lined water pipes. In the meantime, the Milwaukee Health Department has partnererd with Aquasana, an A.O. Smith firm, to provide all residents within the Milwaukee area with discounted pricing to purchase drinking water filters online.

The city is advising residents to check here to see if their water lines are listed as lead service lines. Anyone wishing to purchase a filter at discounted prices should click here for Aquasana.com; enter the promo code “Milwaukee” in order to receive the discount. Anyone living elsewhere around the country who is concerned about the quality of their drinking water can check out the Big Berkey water filtration system at the Health Ranger Store. Also, if you’re concerned your drinking water may be contaminated, you can have it tested at CWC Labs. Here’s how you can do that.

City officials in Milwaukee said that if any resident cannot afford to purchase a water filter on their one, they may be eligible for a one-time free drinking water filter starter kit. The city is working with community-based organizations to distribute filters to eligible families, thanks to support from the United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County, as well as the health system partners of Milwaukee Health Care Partnership, Aurora Health Care, Ascension Wisconsin, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The city had already set a date for handing out the filters, but it’s likely that residents in need could still get one.

Avoiding another crisis like the one in Flint

In January, Natural News reported that federal health officials declared a state of emergency in Flint after it was discovered that tens of thousands of residents were being poisoned with lead-tainted water. Especially afflicted were children who were irreparably poisoned by excessive levels of lead in drinking water.

Problems began in April 2014 when the city sought to save money by pulling water from the heavily polluted Flint River instead of piping it in from nearby Detroit’s municipal water supply The measure was meant to be temporary at first, pending the construction of a new water pipeline from Lake Huron.

But immediately residents began complaining about drinking water that was cloudy and foul-smelling. Over subsequent months, however, officials continued to insist that the water was safe – even as many children began to show signs of lead-induced sickness and brain damage.

Later we reported that the Environmental Protection Agency knew within a few months that the water was contaminated with lead but did not move to intervene.

Sources:

OnMilwaukee.com

CWCLabs.com

NaturalNews.com