Students from across four counties are taking part in an annual effort to test water quality in the Flint River watershed.
Students from Flint Southwestern Classical Academy joined the student-driven effort organized by the Flint River Watershed Coalition for the first time in several years.
Thirty 9th and 10th graders stepped into rubber boots and fishing waders to identify various insects and collect water samples in Swartz Creek, which is a tributary of the Flint River that winds its way to within a half mile of their school.
Ahmirrah Blair was part of a group that tested for nitrate, which can be harmful for drinking water. Students put water from the creek in a vial, added an acid mixture to identify the chemical compound, and then set a timer to measure its concentration.
"Our sample water started off clear,” Blair said. “And then it kind of made it like a pink color at the end of our results."
She and her classmates used a key that related various shades of pink to different levels of nitrate. Blair and her classmates found their sample fell into a relatively low range.
Overall, she said she was surprised by how clean the water seemed. “I was actually surprised at how much it wasn't polluted.” she said. “The natural color of the Flint River’s water is kind of brown but like when you pick it up and put it into something it actually comes out like a clear color.”
Blair is one of the thousands of children in Flint who were exposed to lead during the city’s water crisis, which began 10 years ago after the city’s emergency manager switched from Detroit’s water system to water from the Flint River. The city failed to properly treat its new water source with anti-corrosives, and lead began to leach from aging pipes into home faucets.
Blair was 6 years old when it began.
“All I remember is just, really, just having a lot of bottled water, not being able to take showers regularly, and having to use filters,” she said.
Blair said she still doesn’t trust the water that comes out of the tap in Flint and only drinks bottled water.
Southwestern Classical Academy Principal Christopher Ochodnicky said the hands-on experience helps those impacted by the water crisis have a better understanding of various measures of water quality.
"The students are now seeing that they're empowered to be aware of and to have the knowledge to control the narrative around our water resources,” he said. “It gives them the power to do something, to put it into action."
Tom Esper hopes the student-led effort will help dispel what he considers a “myth” about the Flint River: “that is that there's something wrong with Flint River water.”
Esper is the Education Manager of the Flint River Watershed Coalition, which has helped organize the student-led testing effort for more than 20 years. He said the composite results have consistently shown at least a “fair” water quality ranking, and often turn out even better, with ratings of “good” or “excellent.”
Students from Flint Community Schools joined the water testing project for the first time since 2017. They’ll compare results with students from 15 other schools, including a homeschool group, at an event at Kettering University later this month.
