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# The Flint Water Crisis: Using Systems Thinking to Understand Critical Failures

## Details

**Authors** Sokolow J

**Year** 2017

**Publisher** Cornell Policy Review

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Environment & Sustainability

**Kind of engagement** applications

[Read it](https://www.cornellpolicyreview.com/flint_water_crisis/)

## In authors' words

### Abstract

The drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, began in April 2014, after city officials—in an effort to balance the water system's checkbook— decided to switch the city's water source, moving from purchasing treated water from Detroit to supplying water from the Flint River. This event and those officials' subsequent decisions exposed Flint residents to high levels of lead leaching from the pipes for more than a year. Children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, as high levels of lead in children's blood can put them at risk for developmental problems. During the crisis, between 6,000 and 12,000 children were exposed to drinking lead-contaminated water. Recognizing the severity of the crisis, President Barack Obama declared Flint in a federal state of emergency in January 2016. A Nationwide Problem This is not the first time a city has faced lead contamination in their drinking water. Thirteen years before the crisis in Flint, lead contamination occurred in the Washington, D.C. water system. Dr. Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech—the man who brought light to the crisis in Flint through rigorous water quality analyses—found that the elevated levels of lead in the D.C. water were due to the chemical chloramine, which had caused lead service lines to corrode. Flint and D.C. are not unique among U.S. water systems, either. In fact, primarily due to aging drinking water infrastructure, more than 5,300 water systems are in violation of the Lead and Copper Rule, these violations include water systems that failed to properly test for lead, as demonstrated in Figure 1.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A Cornell Policy Review analysis of the Flint water crisis through systems thinking — the 2014 source switch, the lead leaching that followed, and the official decisions that exposed residents for more than a year.

### What they found (results)

Flint is not unique: Washington D.C.'s chloramine-driven lead corrosion preceded it, and more than 5,300 U.S. water systems violate the Lead and Copper Rule — the failures are systemic, rooted in aging infrastructure.

## Commentary

### In short

A student application of DSRP, from the Cornell Policy Review systems thinking special issues.

**Patterns it shows** R

**How to cite this** Sokolow J (2017). The Flint Water Crisis: Using Systems Thinking to Understand Critical Failures. Cornell Policy Review.