A crisis that stretches back for several months escalated this week, bringing this news of the very bad variety to national attention.
Yanang Wang reports that Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency in an ongoing crisis over the city's water supply. In Weaver's own, official words from the statement declaring the emergency on Monday: "The City of Flint has experienced a Manmade disaster."
Wang provides some background on the genesis of the crisis:
"The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The proportion of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood has nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014."
Wang reports that the statement also stated that the city is "seeking support from the federal government to deal with the 'irreversible' effects of lead exposure on the city’s children." That federal support, according to the statement, will likely be needed in the form of "greater need for special education and mental health services, as well as developments in the juvenile justice system."
Writing for Vox, Libby Nelson provides an explainer of the crisis. John Wisely and Robin Erb reported on the emerging crisis in October for the Detroit Free Press.
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Journal of the American Planning Association