The latest round of water testing in Flint, Mich., announced on Jan. 12, shows the city’s drinking water is well below action levels for the federal lead-and-copper rule, as is has been for 18 months. But many city residents are still afraid to drink the water.

“The reality is that Flint residents can’t reasonably be expected to trust anyone,” says Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor who helped to bring national attention to the high levels of lead in Flint water after 2014, when the city switched to corrosive water without corrosion control. The state later hired Edwards and his team to conduct independent testing. The team’s work has ended because the state’s testing is in alignment, he notes.

Edwards says even citizen scientists who helped to test the water and know it meets federal standards refuse to drink it. “There’s nothing that science can do to fix that problem [of trust] in the short term,” says Edwards, who is working with the city on the overarching problems of a costly, oversized water system.

正在取得进步以改善饮用水系统，而前进的步骤可能会安抚一些愤怒的居民。此外，州监督委员会已投票决定将地方控制权归还给该市选举官员，并在弗林特（Flint）对密歇根州四个部门进行了初步刑事审判，该部门针对在水危机中犯有刑事不当行为的环境质量官员。

On Jan. 11, Warren Green, vice president for Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN), testified in the trial on his interactions with Flint’s state-appointed water manager. LAN was a consultant to Flint, advising it on water-system operations. LAN is the subject of civil lawsuits, though the company has said it recommended corrosion control and other measures that were ignored.

格林作证说，据新闻媒体MLIVE称，水经理和其他官员表示，在该工厂运营一年之前，该州将不需要腐蚀控制。格林还说，水处理厂处于“这种失修”状态，以至于LAN无法完全评估该工厂。

In November, the city finalized a contract to receive water for 30 years from the Great Lakes Water Authority, rendering the treatment plant largely unnecessary, but there is still work needed to improve the city’s water distribution system, including the continued replacement of lead-tainted service pipes. To date, approximately 6,600 of 20,000 pipes have been replaced.

Arcadis被纽约市雇用，制定公司将于2月份提供的分销优化计划。Arcadis的供水和治疗领导者克里斯·希尔（Chris Hill）说，该计划将包括标准操作程序，人员配备和运营建议，状况评估和水文建模等项目。这种建模导致了减少城市的存储设施的建议，因此居民将获得更新鲜的水，并建议较小的水管为较小的人口提供服务。作为其工作的一部分，阿卡迪斯（Arcadis）举行了公开会议，以获取有关该系统的信息并帮助对公众建立信任。

In a Jan. 8 letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, City Mayor Karen Weaver (D) says much of the recommended work, including a storage and pumping station, a chemical building and a secondary water-source transmission main, will be completed in 2019 using $120 million in federal funding.