But funding challenges for this effort remain throughout the country. On the whole this has led to a much-needed push to eliminate lead pipes in municipal water systems. “And (now) there’s been a shift toward more proactive work regarding lead in water.” As time passed, however, there was a shift to people saying, “‘I wouldn't want to risk that happening in my community,’” Betanzo says. Betanzo’s firm helped uncover the water crisis in Flint in 2015. “Looking back at what happened in Flint, some of the immediate reaction, was ‘What happened in Flint was a really unique situation, and that would never happen in my community,’” says Elin Warn Betanzo, P.E., the founder of Safe Water Engineering LLC in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. At least nine people died of Legionnaires’ disease, a waterborne form of pneumonia. Residents were forced to resort to bottled water throughout the crisis. By 2015, this had led to a significant increase in lead exposure in Flint’s drinking water - up to 40% of the city experienced elevated lead levels. But the new source of water was highly corrosive and caused lead from old pipes throughout the system to leach into the water supply. The Flint water crisis initially unfolded in 2014, when the city shifted its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money.
Census Bureau, the city is 54.1% Black, and 38.8% of the city’s residents live below the poverty line). And while the crisis impacted the entire city, many of the affected neighborhoods were predominantly Black and low-income (according to the U.S. The water crisis that rocked Flint, Michigan, several years ago turned a once mighty industrial city - the cradle of General Motors - into a tragedy, a city that other cities didn’t want to emulate.
#Flint michigan water crisis series#
This article is part of the “ Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity,” series that is being published by Civil Engineering magazine and the Civil Engineering Source.
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