City of Flint continues boil advisory after water main repair

Health officials are still investigating the cause of the water main break.

Photo of a water tower in Flint, Mich.

In this file photo, the Flint water plant tower is seen, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, in Flint.

The entire city of Flint, Mich. remains under a boil water advisory, with officials advising residents that they should continue boiling even filtered water through the rest of Monday.

According to Flint’s official website, roughly 15 ft. of pipe split by a transmission main last Friday, causing pressure to drop throughout its water system. Repairs have been completed, but workers have yet to discover the reason why the pipe broke.

“As the City of Flint continues to upgrade our water infrastructure, we need to keep in mind that the integrity of our infrastructure is uneven,” Department of Public Works Director Mike Brown said in a statement. “Some of it is state of the art, and some of it is very old.”

Health officials want the over 80,000 residents in Flint to only use bottled or boiled water until they test the system for harmful bacteria.

Flint residents are all too familiar with the consequences of using tainted water.

In 2014, the city switched to a different water source but did not properly treat pipes for corrosion. This allowed cancer-causing lead contamination to leech into the drinking supply and causing a year-long health crisis that caught national attention.

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Author

  • Quinn Klinefelter
    Quinn Klinefelter is a Senior News Editor at 101.9 WDET. In 1996, he was literally on top of the news when he interviewed then-Senator Bob Dole about his presidential campaign and stepped on his feet.