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Flint mayor backs off plan to switch city water source from Detroit to KWA

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (right) stands next to the lead drinking water line that was pulled from a home in Flint.
Mark Brush
/
Michigan Radio
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, right, recommended the city continue drawing its water from the Detroit-area Great Lakes Water Authority.

It was April 16 of 2013, almost exactly four years ago, when emergency manager Ed Kurtz signed the contract that switched the city of Flint to the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA). It was heralded as a cost-cutting move.

That decision led to one of the biggest water contamination crises in American history.

The lead poisoning forced the city to go back to getting its water from the Great Lakes Water Authority, which serves Detroit, until the KWA system was in place.

Today, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, announced a change of plans. “I am recommending that the city of Flint stay with the Great Lakes Water Authority as its primary source of water," she said at a press conference.

Stateside spoke with Michigan Radio’s Steve Carmody about the implications of that announcement for the city of Flint and the KWA.

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