The City of Flint launched a first-of-its-kind real-time water quality monitoring network Tuesday, activating 42 sensors embedded throughout the newly replaced water distribution system that will allow residents, city officials, and independent researchers to track lead levels, pH, chlorine, and other key parameters through a publicly accessible online dashboard.

The monitoring network, developed in partnership with Michigan State University’s civil engineering department and funded through a $6.8 million federal infrastructure grant, represents the culmination of years of advocacy by Flint residents and water justice organizations demanding unprecedented transparency and accountability in the city’s water system following the lead contamination crisis that began in 2014.

“Flint residents have earned the right to see their own water data in real time, not wait for a report issued months later,” said Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley at a launch event at City Hall. “This system belongs to this community, and it is going to change how every city in America thinks about water transparency.”

The dashboard, accessible at flintwater.org, allows users to search by address or neighborhood and view current and historical readings from the nearest monitoring sensor. Alerts are automatically generated when any reading exceeds EPA action levels, triggering notifications to residents through the city’s emergency alert system and directly to the state’s drinking water program at EGLE.

MSU researchers who helped design the system said it represented a significant advance over traditional water monitoring approaches, which typically involve periodic sampling at a small number of fixed locations. The continuous sensor data, they said, will allow for the identification of patterns and problems that episodic sampling would miss entirely.

The sensors are installed at regular intervals throughout the distribution system, with particular density in neighborhoods that were most heavily impacted during the contamination crisis, including the city’s north and east sides. All sensor locations are mapped and visible on the public dashboard.

Flint’s system is expected to serve as a model for other cities nationwide. Representatives from Detroit, Benton Harbor, and Newark, New Jersey attended Tuesday’s launch and expressed interest in implementing similar approaches. The EPA is currently developing a framework for a national water transparency standard partially based on Flint’s model.