The Flint Water Crisis: An Engineering Perspective Shawn P. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Flint Water Crisis: An Engineering Perspective

Shawn P. McElmurry, PhD, PE Associate Professor Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Photo credit: Regina Boone, Detroit Free Press

Public Knowledge and Awareness Towards Infrastructure Issues in Shrinking Cities

Agree 55% Disagree 3% I do not know 42%

The amount of physical water infrastructure in my city impacts the cost

• f my water bill…

Decreasing my monthly water bill 1% Increasing my monthly water bill 45% It has not changed 22% I do not know 32%

How has population change impacted the price of my water bill…

Faust, et al. (2015) DOI: 10.1177/1087724X15606737

Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership (FACHEP)

In collaboration with Flint residents and community partners, a large multidisciplinary team focused on evaluating drinking water quality, including:

• Metals (Pb, Cu, Cr, etc.
• Disinfection by products (TTHMs, etc.)
• Chlorine residual
• Bacteria (E. coli, L. pneumophila, etc.)

Developing advanced surveillance plan to evaluate association between water quality and the incidence of disease:

• Legionnaires' disease
• Skin diseases

Collaborators: Abdulbaset Salim, MD (WSU) Carol Miller, PhD, PE (WSU) Daniayl Shamim (DMC) David Pitts, PhD (WSU) Donna Kashian, PhD (WSU) Donnie Sackey, PhD (WSU) Laura Sullivan, PhD (Kettering) Matt Seeger, PhD (MSU) Mona Hanna‐Attisha, MD (MSU/Hurley) Nancy Love, PhD, PE (UM) Paul Kilgore, MD, MPH (MSU) Simon Davies, PhD (MSU) Susan Masten, PhD, PE (MSU) Support: Office of the Vice President of Research College of Engineering Urban Watershed Environmental Research Group (UWERG) Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES)

Thank you!

Shawn P. McElmurry s.mcelmurry@wayne.edu

Flint Residents: Shayne Hodges Vicki VanBuren (Flint City Council) Rachel Wenzlick (United Way) Others… Students: Alex Frazen Audrey Zarb Emily Bradley Jenna Hage‐Hassan Justin Kietur Liz Whiddon Mariana Runho Mohammed Dardona Rebecca Cooper Roozbeh Ravansari Sydney Szeles Yousef Al‐Hashem