Illustrating the Toxicity of Flint's Water Supply

Christopher Ingraham presents visual evidence of the Flint water crisis in the form of a series of infographics. The infographics use data gathered by "[a] group of Virginia Tech researchers who sampled the water in 271 Flint homes last summer found some contained lead levels high enough to meet the EPA's definition of 'toxic waste.'"

The infrographics show what the lead exposure in the drinking water supply of nearby cities like Detroit (2.3 parts per billion) and Troy (1.1 parts per billion) looks like, followed by the 90th percentile of the Flint homes (27 parts per billion) and the highest level found in the sample (158 parts per billion). That last sample was found at a home in the city's 8th Ward, which was using water at "more than 10 times the EPA limit" and "30 times higher than the 5 ppb reading that can indicate unsafe lead amounts."