Gary Brown
Detroit's Water and Sewerage Department Director Gary Brown tried to calm concerns Tuesday at a press conference about the safety of the city's water.
The public comment came after he said he signed off on sending 225,000 letters to households notifying Detroiters their property has a known lead service line, galvanized service line or a line of unknown material that may be lead, Dana Afana of Detroit Free Press reports.
Brown explained the Environmental Protection Agency provided Brown a specific template for those letters, which he could not alter. He said it "failed to put context around it" to assure Detroiters the water is safe, the Freep reports.
"I should have recognized that this was going to cause angst in the community and added context to the letter so that it could have been explained," Brown said. "Our water is safe and is some of the best water in the world. We are leader in the United States in delivering quality water. We're below the actionable level for lead at 12 parts per billion in the most recent testing results."
