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The Michigan Senate has unanimously approved $3.3 billion in water infrastructure spending to replace lead pipes and repair dams statewide while also sending money to a Detroit-area system that has struggled with flooding.
The Michigan House and Senate advanced two bills Thursday aiming to push billions toward water infrastructure and adding school resource officers.
The threat itself is nothing new. It’s just newly known to the public, the result of a rule change that forced water suppliers to start looking harder for the neurotoxin in their water delivery systems starting in 2019.
New rules, imposed after Flint, forced public water providers to look harder for lead leaching into drinking water. Violations of state lead standards are up nearly 50 percent, with new urgency to remove lead from water lines.
Areas receiving the most money from the bill include dam risk reduction, lead service line replacement, and the state’s Drinking Water Program.