Samples from the city of Royal Oak's municipal drinking water have been found to contain lead levels exceeding the State of Michigan's recently revised, tougher standards — making it the fifth community in Oakland Countythis month to discover elevated lead or copper problems in its water.

And the pediatrician who helped expose the Flint water crisis says that's "awesome."

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, author, public health advocate, Michigan State University assistant professor and a pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, said the findings are coming as the result of the more diligent testing now required in Michigan under the revised regulations.

"Michigan adopted this model lead and copper rule that’s really allowing us to better see what’s in our water," she said. "The testing in the past never adequately captured the reality of lead in water.

"Now, as anticipated, community after community is learning they have elevated lead levels in their drinking water, and they can now do something about it."

Oakland County's Health Division is providing assistance to Royal Oak, including distribution of water filters to qualifying households, and lead and copper water testing upon request.

"Water quality is paramount," county spokesman Bill Mullan said. "Having these stricter standards to let people know there may be elevated levels of lead and copper in their drinking water is vitally important to the health and well-being of our residents."

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The communities of Birmingham, White Lake, Oak Park and Hazel Park earlier this month announced findings of elevated lead in municipal water supplies. Testing of water in those communities continues.

Royal Oak officials are working with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Oakland County Health Division to conduct water sampling and investigations.

The division is providing public education and coordinating distribution of free water filter kits to qualifying households. To qualify for a filter, the household must receive water from an affected area, and have a pregnant woman or at least one child under the age of 18 living or spending several hours a week in the home of a family who receives WIC benefits, Medicaid health insurance, or who has difficulty covering the the $35 filter or $15 replacement filter cartridge costs.

Water filter kits were expected to be available for those who qualify at the Leo Mahany/Harold Meininger Senior Community Center, 3500 Marais Ave., Royal Oak, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

For those residents who do not qualify for free filters, information will be provided at the senior center on the types of filters needed to effectively capture elevated lead levels. The filters are generally available at many big-box stores, Mullan said.

More:

Oak Park says third of 30 houses sampled had lead in water

Birmingham, White Lake Twp. issue advisories after water testing shows some homes exceed lead standards

Not just Detroit: Lead in drinking water plagues schools nationwide

Mullan recommended only buying filters containing a symbol showing they are certified for lead removal by NSF, an international public health standards and certification laboratory based in Ann Arbor.

Michigan in June 2018 adopted the nation's strictest rules for lead in drinking water — new lead and copper rules that will drop the "action level" for lead from 15 parts per billion, the federal limit, to 12 ppb in 2025.

The new state rules also require municipal systems to conduct testing under highly specific protocols to better examine their systems for lead problems, emphasizing tests in locations known to have lead service lines. It's those new testing methods — which include sampling the fifth liter of water from a tap at a household with known lead service lines, not just the first liter — that have led to multiple communities now finding they exceed the current 15 ppb standard.

That finding triggers other requirements to minimize exposure to lead and copper in drinking water, including water monitoring and treatment, public education and lead service line replacement.

The state's new rules set a goal of ultimately replacing all 500,000 lead service pipes statewide. Underground lead service lines connecting water mains to houses and other buildings must be replaced by 2040, unless a utility can show regulators it will take longer under a broader plan to repair and replace its water infrastructure. The plan could cost $2.5 billion over decades, money that is expected to largely come from water customers.

The state's tougher lead rules come in the wake of the Flint water crisis. Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 after the city switched from treated Lake Huron water supplied by Detroit to raw water from the Flint River, which was treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.

Officials with the then-Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, now known as the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, have acknowledged a mistake in failing to require the addition of corrosion-control chemicals as part of the water treatment process. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into Flint households.

An analysis by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that Flint children's blood-lead levels spiked after the water change, and did not lower until months later.

In addition to lead contamination concerns, there were 12 deaths linked to Legionnaires' disease during a 17-month period in 2014 and 2015 in the Flint area.

Hanna-Attisha's work examining the blood-lead levels of her patients in Flint, at first questioned by state environmental officials, ultimately helped show that the children's lead levels rose after the changes in the city's water supply source.

But blood-lead levels aren't a great indicator of lifetime lead exposures and their potential health effects, she said.

"Blood-lead testing is very nuanced — it has a very short window of detection in your blood," Hanna-Attisha said. "It only tells you if you’ve recently been exposed to lead."

The most important thing a family can do is stop any potential lead exposure, she said: Learn whether their home has lead service lines or lead pipes or fixtures with the house, and either replace them as quickly as possible, or begin using proper lead water filtration. Michigan's new rules require utilities to compile and share information on lead service lines.

"As a pediatrician, our focus is prevention," Hanna-Attisha said. "We know there’s no safe level of lead."

Michigan's strengthened approach to look for lead in drinking water is the correct one, she said.

"We’re testing water, we’re testing the environment. That’s the direction we should be going," Hanna-Attisha said. "When we find lead in our kids' blood, it tells us there’s something wrong in the environment."

Royal Oak residents with questions related to water testing or lead service lines can call a special hotline set up by the city at 248-246-3999 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or go to www.romi.gov/leadtesting.

Contact Keith Matheny: 313-222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @keithmatheny. Free Press staff writer Paul Egan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reduce risk from lead in drinking water

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Oakland County Health Division recommend the following to reduce risk from potential elevated levels of lead in drinking water:

If you suspect your home's plumbing or faucets contain lead or lead-based solder, have your water tested.

Replace faucets with those made in 2014 or later marked "NSF 61/9," which meet stricter limits.

Flush cold-water pipes by running water for approximately five minutes. The longer the water has been sitting in the pipes, the more lead it may contain. Fill containers for later use after the flushing process.

Use cold, filtered or bottled water for drinking, cooking and especially for making baby formula. Hot water is more likely to contain higher levels of lead.

Use a water filter certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 for lead reduction. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also recommends a filter certified for NSF/ANSI Standard 42 for particulate reduction. Replace water filter cartridges at least as often as recommended by the manufacturer.

Do not boil water to remove lead. It doesn't work.

Aerators, the small attachments to faucets that regulate the flow of water, should be removed and sanitized monthly, as they can accumulate small amounts of lead on their screens.

For more, go to michigan.gov/mileadsafe.