When the city of Flint, Mich., disastrously switched its drinking-water source in 2014, it hired an engineering consultant that now claims state and municipal officials ignored the firm's recommendation for a two- to three-month trial period, as well as water-softening and pipe-corrosion controls, before using the Flint River water treated at the city's rundown water treatment plant.
The claim opens up a new perspective on several bypassed suggestions offered to officials that might have prevented the surging lead levels in Flint's water.