2019
DOI: 10.5334/cstp.154
|View full text |Cite
|
Sign up to set email alerts
|

Citizen Science During the Flint, Michigan Federal Water Emergency: Ethical Dilemmas and Lessons Learned

Abstract: A citizen science collaboration between Flint residents, the Virginia Tech "Flint Water Study" team, and others helped to uncover the Flint Lead-in-Drinking Water Crisis and a community-wide outbreak of Legionella. The resulting Federal Emergency declaration in January 2016 resulted in more than $600 million in relief funding, an acknowledged case of environmental injustice, and resignations/indictments of some public officials. But after responsible government entities apologized and attempted to make amends … Show more

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...
1
1
1
1

Citation Types

0
34
0

Year Published

2019
2019
2022
2022

Publication Types

Select...
7
1
1

Relationship

1
8

Authors

Journals

citations
Cited by 21 publications
(34 citation statements)
references
References 37 publications
0
34
0
Order By: Relevance
“…[15][16][17][18] Officials were even having trouble finding enough homes with verified lead service lines to successfully conduct the late 2019 LCR sampling event. 19 Many Flint residents still do not trust the safety of tap water for a variety of reasons, including: 1) Actual cheating on official water lead testing before the crisis was exposed by the authors of this paper late 2015, and resulting betrayal of the public trust due to proven inaction, apathy and/or cover-ups by local, state and federal government agencies, 5,[20][21][22] 2) In post federal emergency Flint (2016- 19), some residents engaged in improper sampling, and in one case lead fishing sinkers were even discovered in a consumer's plumbing, producing water samples with very high WLLs (>12 000 μg L −1 ) and suggestions of an ongoing health threat, 23 3) Social media postings and investigative reports, by a "political reporter" from December 2016 to present, allege an ongoing conspiracy by government agencies and independent lead sampling programs to cover-up water lead problems, [23][24][25][26] 4) Widespread misinformation on the effectiveness of state-distributed lead filters, 27 and speculation by academics that the filters were causing Shigellosis or consumer deaths, 23,[28][29][30][31][32] 5) Warnings that vibrations and other disturbances arising during pipe replacements, might also be causing massive release of lead from the Flint pipe network, 33,34 and unfounded assertions by some media, celebrities and politicians who continue to claim that Flint remains mired in a water lead crisis. 32,[35][36][37] We recently utilized data on the monthly lead mass captured in sewage sludge (or, biosolids) at the Flint wastewater treatment plant from 2010-17, to establish that biosolids lead reliably tracked lead release from plumbing to potable water before, during and in the immediate aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…[15][16][17][18] Officials were even having trouble finding enough homes with verified lead service lines to successfully conduct the late 2019 LCR sampling event. 19 Many Flint residents still do not trust the safety of tap water for a variety of reasons, including: 1) Actual cheating on official water lead testing before the crisis was exposed by the authors of this paper late 2015, and resulting betrayal of the public trust due to proven inaction, apathy and/or cover-ups by local, state and federal government agencies, 5,[20][21][22] 2) In post federal emergency Flint (2016- 19), some residents engaged in improper sampling, and in one case lead fishing sinkers were even discovered in a consumer's plumbing, producing water samples with very high WLLs (>12 000 μg L −1 ) and suggestions of an ongoing health threat, 23 3) Social media postings and investigative reports, by a "political reporter" from December 2016 to present, allege an ongoing conspiracy by government agencies and independent lead sampling programs to cover-up water lead problems, [23][24][25][26] 4) Widespread misinformation on the effectiveness of state-distributed lead filters, 27 and speculation by academics that the filters were causing Shigellosis or consumer deaths, 23,[28][29][30][31][32] 5) Warnings that vibrations and other disturbances arising during pipe replacements, might also be causing massive release of lead from the Flint pipe network, 33,34 and unfounded assertions by some media, celebrities and politicians who continue to claim that Flint remains mired in a water lead crisis. 32,[35][36][37] We recently utilized data on the monthly lead mass captured in sewage sludge (or, biosolids) at the Flint wastewater treatment plant from 2010-17, to establish that biosolids lead reliably tracked lead release from plumbing to potable water before, during and in the immediate aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We recognize that it may still be too early for detailed case studies better supporting the causal link between COVID-19 stagnation and legionellosis to have been conducted and disseminated; Yet, we remain surprised more case information is not readily available if there is an ongoing or impending public health crisis. Timely, accurate, and contextualized communications are needed to prevent practices that may not be fully effective (e.g., not managing the system after interventions), unintentionally increase risks (e.g., incorrect flushing), 40 or unduly burdensome communities (e.g., being told to test for and respond to Legionella health warnings by experts without having adequate decision-making resources). 41 An in-depth retrospective analysis of reporting data will be needed to assess trends in legionellosis and reopening patterns relative to trends in historical incidence data.…”
Section: (4) Have Covid-19 Lockdowns Increased Legionellosis Cases?mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…A letter signed by over 60 Flint residents raising some of these concerns resulted in Edwards filing an unsuccessful $3 million defamation lawsuit against a former member of the resident sampling team and two other activists. While Edwards blamed the controversy on opportunistic “bad actors” unfairly criticizing him, spreading fear and pseudo‐science, and seeking to exploit the water crisis for their own benefit (Roy & Edwards, ), others, including some of his erstwhile activist collaborators, pointed to an underlying accountability deficit at the heart of his work in and on Flint (Pauli, ). Other collaborations between residents and academics in response to the crisis have been less contentious, showing that scientific research purporting to be community‐oriented can benefit from explicitly acknowledging power differentials between researchers and their lay collaborators, working within local accountability structures like community ethics review boards, and according local partners substantive control over the various phases of the research enterprise (Carrera et al, ).…”
Section: Implications Of the Flint Water Crisismentioning
confidence: 99%