LeeAnne Walters' Water Tests Show Lead at 104 ppb—Nearly 7 Times EPA Limit

The City of Flint tests water at the home of LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four who has been complaining about health problems since the water switch, and finds lead levels at 104 parts per billion (ppb)—nearly seven times greater than the EPA action level of 15 ppb. Walters had first informed the city of water problems in late 2014 after her twin sons developed rashes and her daughter’s hair began falling out, but officials took months to respond to her complaints.

Rather than triggering immediate action to protect public health, city and state officials downplay the results. Subsequent testing at Walters’ home reveals the situation is far worse: March 2015 shows 397 ppb, April shows 707 ppb. Follow-up testing by Virginia Tech researcher Dr. Marc Edwards—whom Walters contacts after officials dismiss her concerns—finds levels between 200 and 13,200 ppb in her home. Water containing more than 5,000 ppb meets the EPA’s definition of hazardous waste.

Walters becomes “Resident Zero” in exposing the Flint water crisis, partnering with Dr. Edwards’ team at Virginia Tech to conduct the citizen science campaign that would eventually force officials to acknowledge the lead poisoning of an entire city. She recruits 300 Flint residents to participate in comprehensive water testing that documents widespread lead contamination across the city, providing irrefutable scientific evidence that officials can no longer deny.

Her persistence in the face of official indifference and gaslighting exemplifies the courage required of ordinary citizens to hold their government accountable when it poisons them. As a white woman in a predominantly Black city, Walters uses her privilege to amplify the concerns of her Black neighbors who had been ignored and dismissed by authorities. She would later receive the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Nobel Prize for grassroots environmentalism,” for her role in exposing the crisis.