A city and a water crisis: Flint, Michigan and the 1950/1960s water crisis

Abstract

The city of Flint and the Flint River has a long history of pollution, industrial waste, mismanagement of ecosystems, and issues of access to clean water that were significant factors in water management decisions for the city’s residents. In the 1950s and 1960s, the industrial and residential pollution control demands placed on the Flint River exceeded the river’s capacity. Particularly, the city needed to provide clean water to residents and an adequate flow rate to remove pollution from the very same water source. Many reasons emerged for the water crisis of the 1950s and 1960s, namely a rapid increase in population and demand for industrial growth, which taxed the city’s water and sewage infrastructure beyond its limits. During this era, city government took steps to increase pollution mitigation plans, increase river water flow rates, and develop reservoirs to store water reserves for use during high-demand seasons. One of the massive infrastructure plans included constructing a direct water pipeline to Lake Huron to provide Flint residents with an abundant clean water supply from one of the Great Lakes. Nonetheless, many plans enacted proved inadequate to address the immediate water emergency, and infrastructure plans such as constructing the water pipeline to Lake Huron failed to materialize, which could have prevented the Flint Water Crisis of the 2010s.