Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow al.docx

Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow
all steps
Review your vision statement and short-term and long-term
goals prior to developing your individual development plan
outline for your mentee. Follow the outline prompts on the
"Individual Development Plan Outline" resource to determine a
plan to coach or mentor the mentee. This outline should provide
a clear vision for working with the mentee and meeting the
preliminary short-term and long-term goals already established.
The outline must include realistic activities you can and will
implement with your mentee. In addition, research a minimum
of three articles (3-5 pages each) that support two coaching and
two mentoring techniques that would assist in meeting the
desired outcome for the plan. Once you have submitted the
outline, you will be required to begin developing a timeline in
order to implement a minimum of two activities with your
mentee. The timeline is not required during submission, but it
should provide a clear frame of reference for you and your
mentee to achieve success.
Implementing the activities with your mentee will not
necessarily require an extensive time commitment, but it the
time spent should provide the opportunity to use mentoring or
coaching techniques to support the mentee.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE
INFLUENCE OF NEW FOOD RETAIL SOURCES ON
THE PRICE AND AVAILABILITY OF NUTRITIOUS
FOOD
RICHARD C. SADLER

University of Western Ontario
JASON A. GILLILAND
GODWIN ARKU
ABSTRACT: Studies have demonstrated links between the
accessibility of food and multiple health
outcomes. Policymakers engaged in local community
development may use public health concerns
as a strategy to procure funding for food retail initiatives. Few
studies to date have demonstrated
the impact that a new food retailer can have on geographic and
economic access to nutritious food
in a community, evidence which could support the case for new
food retail. This paper examines the
price and availability of food before and after the opening of
two new groceiy stores in a former food
desert in Elint, Michigan. The results indicate a substantial
improvement in both geographic and
economic food accessibility, and show no statistical difference
betH'een prices at average grocery
stores and the new stores. Discussion suggests that investment
in poorer neighborhoods can be
beneficial to the local population and the community at large by
creating a local multiplier effect
through increased spending in the community.
I he evolution of North American food retailing has created
gaps in the community food
environment in some urban neighborhoods. Furey, Strugnell,
and Mcllveen (2001) discuss how
social, economic, and health-related consequences combine to
create social exclusion among

residents living in these "food deserts." Food retailers could
effect change in food environments,
but there is often a gap between the plans of large-scale
retailers and local-level economic
development strategies (Pothukuchi, 2005). Thus, researchers
have suggested an increased role
for planners and policymakers, who are tasked with promofing
public welfare (Pothukuchi, 2004).
Planners and policymakers can encourage local economic
development in disadvantaged areas
to make use of unique features like proximity to major
transportation routes and existing social
amenities (Porter, 1995). Despite a growing popularity of food
policy councils among planning
Direct correspondence to: Jason A. Gilliland, Department of
Geography, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond
St., London, ON, Canada N6A 5C2. E-mail: [email protected]
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Volume 35, Number 4, pages
471-491.
Copyright © 2012 Urban Affairs Association
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISSN: 0735-2166. DOI: 10.1111/j.l467-9906.2012.00624.x
472 I JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS | Vol. 35/No. 4/2013
and other municipal departments, the research to date is merely
suggestive of the impact they can
have on nurturing new food retail initiatives (Campbell, 2004).
Additionally, most planners still
regard economic development in the food system as the domain
of the private market (Pothukuchi
and Kaufman, 2000).

This paper demonstrates the geographic and economic impact of
two new food retail sources
in a disadvantaged neighborhood of Flint, Michigan, one
developed through a public/private
partnership, and the other through traditional private
investment. Food basket pricing in the
neighborhood indicates a substantial improvement in the cost of
groceries for residents due to
lower prices at the new food retailers. Over one year, these cost
savings translate into between 2-
and 3-month's rent for an average apartment in the city. This
case demonstrates the potential for
multi-tiered benefits: for the investors (who are profitable), the
neighborhood residents (who have
improved geographic access and economic buying power), and
the planners (who are responsible
for policy-making that made investment attractive in the
neighborhood). The article suggests that
food retail should be considered as a development policy in
socioeconomically disadvantaged
neighborhoods underserved by current food retail patterns, both
from a profit-motivated and
community development standpoint.
The Built Environment and Health
The concern for geographic accessibility to food arises from
research demonstrating in-
equalities from living in food deserts, or areas where nutritious,
affordable food is unavailable
(Beaumont, Lang, Leather, & Mucklow, 1995). Increased
prevalence of obesity and related ill-
nesses have been found in these neighborhoods (Morland, Diez-
Roux, & Wing, 2006; Wang,
Kim, Gonzalez, MacLeod, & Winkleby, 2007). Some suggest

that these disparities are created
in part by the evolution of retail to larger store formats
frequently found in suburban locations,
leaving urban areas without nutritious food options (Lavin,
2000; Pothukuchi, 2005; Wrigley,
2001). These inequalities, however, are not simply locational
issues. Poorer dietary habits among
low-income residents may be linked to larger social inequities
(Travers, 1996).
Healthy diets are more expensive in food deserts (Drewnowski,
Darmon, & Briend 2004; Furey
et al., 2001 ; Larsen and Gilliland, 2009); studies have indicated
a considerable premium paid—up
to 76% higher—by residents shopping at local convenience
stores rather than larger chain stores
(Block and Kouba, 2006). This price disparity equates with less
purchasing power, contributing
to poorer diets among residents with limited mobility (Laraia,
Siega-Riz, Kaufman, & Jones,
2004; Morland et al., 2006), since low-mobility residents are
less able to travel great distances to
access goods and services (Hanson and Schwab, 1987).
Poor dietary habits are correlated with higher rates of obesity
(Binkley, Eales, & Jekanowski
2000) and obesity-related health issues such as type-2 diabetes
and cardiovascular disease
(Mokdad et al., 2003). Obesity rates are lower among people
living near healthy food out-
lets (Lewis et al., 2005; Morland et al., 2006), and higher
among those living nearer to fast food
restaurants and convenience stores (Morland and Evenson,
2009; Poston and Foreyt, 1999). Fur-
ther links show a negative correlation between income and fast-
food consumption (Paeratakul,

Ferdinand, Champagne, Ryan, & Bray, 2003) and a positive
correlation between low-income
neighborhoods and location of fast-food outlets (Gilliland,
2010; Cummins and Macintyre, 2002;
Reidpath, Burns, Ganard, Mahoney, & Townsend, 2002). This
suggests that low-income residents
in distressed neighborhoods are most at risk of developing poor
eating habits due to increased ex-
posure to unhealthy foods. This elevated risk increases the
likelihood of social and health-related
problems.
Despite heightened exposure to unhealthy food options, many
residents in low-income, food
insecure communities are aware of the options for healthy
eating near their homes (Freedman
and Bell, 2009), but may be hindered by mobility or economic
constraints (Darmon, Ferguson, &
I Community Development and the Influence of New Food
Retail Sources 473
Briend, 2002). Residents in communities without supermarkets
tend to perceive fewer nutritious
food options, suggesting the importance of larger, more visible
grocery stores (Moore, Diez-Roux,
& Brines, 2008). Although people are aware of the benefits of
nutritious food, they may lack the
political clout or economic capital to bring nutritious food
retailers to their neighborhoods. Thus,
this public health and urban planning issue merits further
attention.
Quantifying the Food Environment

Because of the economic implications of living in
neighborhoods without grocery stores, it is
important to quantify variations in price of groceries within and
between different neighborhoods.
Many studies have employed nutritious food basket surveys to
determine the affordability of
foods in neighborhoods (Chung and Myers, 1999; Cummins and
Macintyre, 2002; Friel, Walsh,
& McCarthy, 2006; Larsen and Gilliland, 2009; Pearson,
Russell, Campbell, & Barker, 2005).'
While residents do not always shop at the nearest grocery store
(Rose and Richards, 2004), the
most socioeconomically distressed populations are far more
likely to shop near home (Clifton,
2004). Thus, food basket pricing is particulady useful for
determining the prices of groceries for
residents with mobility constraints or those in low-income
communities.
Food basket surveys have ranged from only 9 fruits and
vegetables (Pearson et al, 2005) to
146 items from all food groups (Friel et al., 2006). Some used
food baskets pre-tested by public
health authorities (Chung and Myers, 1999; Cummins and
Macintyre, 2002; Furey et al., 2001).
Many simply used the cheapest price for each basket item
(Cummins and Macintyre, 2002;
Donkin, Dowler, Stevenson, & Turner, 1999; Jetter and
Cassady, 2006; Larsen and Gilliland,
2009; Morland and Filomena, 2007; Winkler, Turrell, &
Patterson, 2006), representing the lowest
price a household could expect to spend. Others collected
multiple prices for the cheapest brand,
the leading brand and outlet brands (Friel et al., 2006), or prices
for the most popular brand and

package size (Chung and Myers, 1999).
In every case, the goal is to determine price differences between
and within store types and
neighborhoods. Groceries are frequently more expensive at
convenience stores than at grocery
stores, and prices at independent grocers are higher than at
larger chain grocery stores (White,
2007; Winkler et al., 2006). Thus, the presence of a grocery
store may not alleviate a disadvantage
in the affordability of nutritious foods. But being in a poorer
neighborhood does not necessarily
equate with higher prices, since prices tend to vary more by
store type than store location (Larsen
and Gilliland, 2009).
GIS analysis and food basket pricing are used to quantify the
contribution of two new grocery
stores in a former food desert in Flint, Michigan. Because food
basket studies typically only
examine the price or availability of food with cross-sectional
study designs (Cummins and
Macintyre, 2002; Jetter and Cassady, 2006; Morland and
Filomena, 2007; Pearson et al., 2005),
this before-and-after study represents an important contribution
to knowledge on the literature
regarding food accessibility and availability. Other researchers
and cities can use this information
to justify plans for retailers of nutritious foods in disadvantaged
neighborhoods.
Study Area and Research Context
Flint, Michigan, exemplifies the declining medium-sized
american city portrayed by Mayer
and Greenberg (2001). Once reliant on a major industry for jobs

(General Motors), Flint suffered
from severe deindustrialization, resulting in an economic
depression and substantial job losses. A
77% decline in manufacturing employment in Flint since 1980
has translated into a 41% overall
decline in jobs (Jacobs, 2009). The city peaked at neariy
200,000 residents in the 1960s and at the
time was expected to nearly double in size within 50 years
(Segoe and Associates, 1960). Instead,
474 I JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS I Vol. 35/No. 4/2013
the current population has shrunk to 102,434 (U.S. Census
Bureau, 2010), a 48% decline. This
decline was exacerbated by long-standing preferences by both
city and county residents alike
for home rule over annexation of surrounding municipalities,
stymieing the capture of suburban
tax bases for city services (Zimmer and Hawley, 1956a).
Paradoxically, many of these suburban
municipalities had better attitudes toward tax increases, but
resisted annexation to the central city
(Zimmer and Hawley, 1956b). Thus, while out-county
municipalities remained stable or grew in
population, the city was increasingly "choked" by the
surrounding municipalities with nowhere
to grow, and a declining housing stock contributing to the
population loss (Highsmith, 2009).
The result of this decline is quantified in a recent study on
Flint's urban form, which indicates
that many neighborhoods have lost so many residences as to be
at near-rural levels of density by
units per acre (Hollander, 2010).

An expected outcome of this decline in residential population is
an accompanying decline in
the quantity and quality of services, both public (e.g., schools,
parks) and private (e.g., retail,
commercial employment). Based on network analysis of
occupied residential parcels in 2009,
73% of the city's population resided more than 1000 meters (0.6
miles, or a 10-minute walk)
from a grocery store (Figure 1).
Because of the sharp decline of industrial jobs and
corresponding resources, Flint has continued
to rely on traditional models of economic development. As past
research has shown for other
localities (Mayer and Greenberg, 2001), city leaders in Flint
likely believed the problem would
remedy itself or that little could be done to ameliorate the
problem. Many redevelopment strategies
have failed due to unrealistic scale or an inability to focus on
local economic development, as
Krumholz (1991) has suggested with other cities. Thus, the
abandonment of traditional retail
from established neighborhoods in Flint has been long
established and persistent.
Despite this decline, certain neighborhoods in Flint have
remained stable or are seeing revival.
These locations exhibit several elements important for economic
and community development—
including lower crime rates, the presence of health care
services, institutions of higher learn-
ing, and transportation connectivity (Reese and Ye, 2011).
Sustained public investment in the
education and health care sectors in and near downtown has
created demand for private invest-
ment in the form of retail, apartments, lofts, and student

residences. The influx of capital and
residential population into the neighborhood increased the
demand for a food retail outlet.
With the financial backing of non-profit agencies, an
independent grocery called Witherbee's
Market opened a 10,000 square foot store in June 2010 in the
heart of the downtown food desert.
Another grocery store (Mr. B's Foodland) opened just south of
downtown in January 2010. Prior to
this, downtown had not had a grocery store since the Farah
Brothers Supermarket burned down in
1999 (Polk & Co., 1998,1999). These stores reflect a change in
the mentality toward reinvestment
downtown; previous economic development plans included the
failed Autoworld, Water Street
festival marketplace, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel (Highsmith,
2009). Incentives were given to
Witherbee's store operators to aid in development, including a
brownfield tax incentive, three
EDA loans from the local economic development corporation,
and a commercial revitaiization
deduction (City of Flint, 2010). The opening of these stores has
major implications for economic
development strategies, since they can serve as catalysts for
additional initiatives. Their stability
can be instructive to other interested retailers that local
economic development can succeed.
There are also implications for neighborhood viability in terms
of quality of life, since two
grocery stores now lie within a 10-minute walk (0.6 miles, or
1,000 meters) for many residences.
This improvement in a former food desert can be quantified
through GIS analysis and by evaluating
any changes in the price and availability of nutritious food.

This study makes several important contributions useful to
retailers and planners: first, the
development of an empirical method for locating food deserts in
urban areas; second, the com-
parison of the cost of groceries via nutritious food basket
pricing throughout the Flint metropolitan
Community Development and the Influence of New Food Retail
Sources | 475
Grocery Stores
Residences
City of Flint
Locations of grocery stores and occupied residential address
points in Flint, Michigan, 2011
area; and third, the before-and-after comparison of the cost of
groceries in the former food desert.
The results of this pre/post-evaluation will help determine the
geographic and economic impact
of the new stores. In turn, this provides evidence for planners,
policymakers, and investors in-
terested in pursuing community and economic development
partnerships of this nature in other
communities.

iVIETHODS
The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate the effect
of two new grocery stores on
the price and availability of nutritious foods in a former food
desert. Implications of these benefits
on community development are drawn throughout. To study
food deserts, however, it is important
to have an empirical method for locating them. The methods
suggest an innovative approach for
using geographic information systems to locate food deserts,
and employ an established method
for determining the price of nutritious foods.
Determining Food Deserts
Several criteria must be met to substantiate the existence of a
food desert. First, residents must
have poor geographic access to grocery stores or other
nutritious food sources. The presence
of alternative food retailers may provide some nutritious foods
but, in general, the price will
be considerably higher (Eisenhauer, 2001) and availability will
be lower than at grocery stores
(Chung and Myers, 1999). Occupied residential address points
for the City of Flint were used
as the geographic unit of analysis, since all trips originate from
the home. Address points were
then classified based on whether city residents were within a
1,000 m network distance (along
the street network) to the nearest full-service grocery store
(both within and outside the city of
Flint). This distance is a common threshold to determine
neighborhood walkability, a concept
that encompasses the greatest distance someone would walk to
reach a local amenity (Apparicio,

Cloutier, & Shearmur, 2007; Larsen and Gilliland, 2008;
Smoyer-Tomic, Spence, & Amrhein
2006). Stores outside the city limit boundary were included in
the analysis, to account for an
error in spatial analysis known as the boundary or edge effect
(Gatrell & Löytönen, 1998; Sadler,
Gilliland, & Arku 2011) and since many residents are likely to
shop at these stores (Figure 1).
The percentage of address points with access to a grocery store
was calculated for each census
block group (CBG). These CBGs were then categorized into
four groups by the percentage of
parcels with access to a grocery store, CBGs where 0%-l% of
parcels had access met the first
criterion for defining food deserts, since few people could walk
to a grocery store.
The second requirement for determining food deserts is
neighborhood socioeconomic distress.
The price or availability of groceries has little influence on
residents in affluent neighborhoods,
since these households simply drive to the desired store. To
resolve this, neighborhoods were
characterized by socioeconomic status using U.S. Census
Bureau data for census block groups
(2000a). CBGs were used as the unit of aggregation since they
represent the smallest geographic
unit for which sociodemographic variables are available. It is
important to consider the smallest
possible unit of analysis when dealing with aggregated data,
since higher levels of aggregation
are more likely to misrepresent some neighborhoods, due to
higher variability of populations in
larger agglomerafions (Gatrell & Löytönen, 1998).
Four socioeconomic variables were considered in building a

socioeconomic distress index, fol-
lowing methods outlined in past research (Gilliland and Ross,
2005; Pampalon, Hamel, Gamache,
& Raymond, 2010). These variables include low educational
attainment, incidence of low income,
lone parenthood, and unemployment. Each variable was
included for its impact individually, and
for the minimal collinearity seen when variables were grouped.
Standardized z-scores were ob-
tained for each variable, and these were summed to obtain a
composite socioeconomic distress
score for census block groups within the urbanized region.
These CBGs were then classified into
five groups by natural breaks, and the two highest quintiles
were isolated to obtain those CBGs
most likely at a disadvantage due to socioeconomic distress.
While the focus of this study is on the city of Hint, this distress
index was calculated for a
geographic unit more appropriate to the study of urban areas:
the urbanized area of the Flint
1 Community Deveiopment and the influence of New Food
Retail Sources | 477
metropolitan area as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau
(2000b). Thus, the values for the distress
index are eontingent on all CBGs within the urbanized area of
Flint. This area includes many
suburban municipalities in Genesee County.
Because urbanized areas are defined independently from census
agglomerations, the urbanized
area for Flint did not match neatly with census block group

boundaries. To determine urban census
block groups, the urbanized area was buffered at 1,000 meters.
Census block groups completely
contained by that buffer were included as urban. All other CBGs
were considered non-urban and
excluded from analysis. This technique included CBGs that lay
mostly within the urbanized area
rather than only including CBGs within the city limits of Flint.
Distress scores thus represent
the relative disadvantage based on the entire urbanized area of
Flint and transcend municipal
boundaries (which in Michigan rarely coincide neatly with
urban areas). Figure 2 displays the
distress levels for much of the urbanized area.
Finally, since grocery stores generally require a large
population to support large economies of
scale, only census block groups with a density of 1,000 people
per square mile were considered in
the analysis. This threshold is used by the U.S. Census Bureau
to define urbanized areas (2000b).
While areas with lower densities may exhibit the first two
characteristics of a food desert, it is
practical to consider the densest areas first, since retail-led
interventions are possible here. In
urban regions, CBGs and census tracts with low densities are
frequently industrial parks. For the
study area, one CBG in a vacant industrial zone was excluded
due to the absence of a population.
In this way, spatial analysis privileges populated
neighborhoods.
Nutritious Food Basket Survey
The Ontario Nutritious Food Basket (ONFB) survey (found in
the appendix) was used to

determine variations in the cheapest available price of groceries
at various grocers in the Flint
metropolitan area. This list has been utilized in recent and
geographically proximate research
(Larsen and Gilliland, 2009; Nathoo and Shoveller, 2003), and
is a well-respected and systematic
tool created by Health Canada to measure the price of groceries
contributing to a nutritious
diet (including 66 items representing every food group) (Health
Canada, 1998). The potential to
compare these results with past results in Canada presents
future opportunities for cross-border
comparison, as Jacobs (2009) did with economic development
policies.
Phase one of the survey was conducted in spring 2009. Food
baskets were priced at 15 grocery
stores around the city and county purposefully selected to
represent a cross-section of grocery store
types. Because prices within food retail chains were remarkably
consistent for all the stores visited
(between 2% and 4% within chains), the average food basket
value for that chain was applied to
other stores that were not visited. This resulted in food basket
prices for 38 of 51 grocery stores
in the county. Additionally, a food basket was priced in the food
desert downtown (in anticipation
of the opening of the new grocery stores) by visiting
convenience stores and the city farmers'
market to ensure all items were found, since no single
downtown establishment had all 66 items.
Phase two was conducted in spring 2010, immediately after the
opening of Witherbee's Market
and Mr. B's Foodland in the food desert. For this phase, the
same 15 stores were visited, as well

as Witherbee's and Mr. B's. Mr. B's is a part of a two-store
chain, so pricing was also conducted
at the other Mr. B's location. By extrapolating basket prices to
other stores as before, this resulted
in food basket prices for 41 of 53 grocery stores.
Phase three was conducted in spring 2011 to determine how
increases in food prices might
affect grocery stores. A suburban store (half of a two-store
chain) visited previously burned down
between the 2010 and 2011 food basket pricing events. In place
of these prices, two independent
grocery stores were added to the database, one each in suburban
and urban neighborhoods.
Neighborhood
Socioeconomic
Distress Level
0 0.5 1 2
1 1 I I I
Kilometers • Grocery Stores
FIGURE 2
Census bloci< groups within Flint urbanized area by
socioeconomic distress level
I Community Development and the Influence ot New Food

In total, prices were collected for 44 of 52 stores in the county,
including 12 of the 13 grocery
stores within the Flint city limits.
Price of Groceries and Neighborhood Distress
Since food is not a comparison shopping good for all
consumers, many shop close to home
(Jones and Simmons, 1990). Thus, the neighborhood around a
grocery store likely embodies
the average store patron. Using existing socioeconomic distress
data (including variables on
low educational attainment, incidence of low income, lone
parenthood, and unemployment) and
nutritious food basket prices for a majority of the grocery stores
in the county, it is possible
to examine correlations between the cost of groceries at
neighborhood grocery stores and the
neighborhood socioeconomic distress score. One-thousand-
meter buffers were created around
each grocery store for which food basket pricing was available.
CBGs with a majority of their
area within the store buffer were grouped, and the average
distress score from these CBGs was
applied to the store.
RESULTS
Food Deserts in Fiint
Figures 3 and 4 show high-distress CBGs categorized by the
percent of residents with access to
a grocery store in 2009 and 2010, respectively (before and after
the opening of two new grocery

stores). As anticipated, Flint's downtown was classified as a
food desert due to the absence
of a grocery store in 2009. Figure 3 illustrates that 24 CBGs in
or immediately adjacent to
downtown met the three criteria for a food desert: poor
geographical access to nutritious food,
high socioeconomic distress, and high, urban density.
Additional food deserts include distressed
areas near Bassett Park in the west. Hasselbring Park in the
northwest, St. John Industrial Park in
the north. Carpenter Road Elementary and the Kearsley
Reservoir in the northeast, and Evergreen
Regency and Howard Estates in the southeast.
The opening of Witherbee's downtown and Mr. B's just south of
downtown wholly or partly
ameliorated spatial food deserts in 8 CBGs, as shown in Figures
3 and 4. Initially, only 28%
of residential addresses in the city were within 1,000 meters of
a grocery store. This number
increased to 31%, or an additional 1,300 homes, after the
opening of Witherbee's and Mr. B's. In
addition, 13% of all residential addresses in the city
experienced an improvement in individual
accessibility, based on network analysis of address points to the
nearest grocery store. The added
presence of two grocery stores near downtown lessened the
burden of travelling unwalkable
distances to reach nutritious food retailers.
Figure 5 indicates the average distance to a grocery store by
socioeconomic distress level.
Before the opening of the new stores, highly distressed
neighborhoods were somewhat closer
to a grocery store than less distressed neighborhoods. Since
only 28% of residences in the

city were initially within 1,000 meters of a grocery store,
however, food deserts existed in
many neighborhoods (i.e., downtown). For residents with
constrained mobility, distance is a
considerable obstacle to accessing food. With the addition of
the new stores, these distances
were substantially reduced, improving accessibility in much of
the former food desert downtown.
Although food deserts still exist, some poorer neighborhoods
have better access to grocery stores.
The spatial analysis shows areas of geographic disadvantage but
does not suggest whether the
addition of these grocery stores solved the economic issue by
lowering the price of nutritious
foods—a topic addressed in the next section.
Witherbees A
Market k «
Percent within
: Waii<ing Distance
(1000 m)
0 - 1 %
2 - 25%
26 - 75%
76-100%

# Grocery Stores
High-distress CBGs by percent within walking distance to a
grocery store, Fiint, Ml, pre-intervention
(2009)
Sources | 481
Percent within
Walking Distance
T (1000 m)
0 - 1%
2 - 25%
26 - 75%
76-100%
• Grocery Stores
High-distress CBGs by percent within waiking distance to a
grocery store, Flint, Ml, post-intervention
(2011)
482 I JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 1 Voi. 35/No. 4/2013
il 2009 - Pre-lntervention
"2011-Post-Intervention

Low Medium High
FIGURE 5
Average distance (meters) to grocery stores by socioeconomic
distress levei, pre- and post-
intervention (2009 and 2011)
TABLE 1
Cost of groceries by access to pubiic transit, by type of store,
and by grocery stores vs. food
desert, 2009-2011
Access to Public Transit at Store?
Yes
No
Type of grocery store
National
Local
Independent
Food desert
Overall average vs. cost in (Former) food desert
Grocery stores
Food desert
2009
$128.24
$125.64

2009
$114.45
$130.20
$144.59
$182.95
2009
$125.50
$182.95
2010
$124.11
$120.86
2010
$111.88
$124.22
$140.66
$142.57
2010
$121.88
$142.57
2011
$137.40
$134.04
2011

$126.63
$139.62
$147.22
$156.75
2011
$135.18
$156.75
Bold indicates that the cost decreased the most (or saw the
smallest increase) among values in its group for the
corresponding
year.
Food Basket Results
Results of food basket surveys in 2009 and 2010 (adjusted for
inflation) are shown alongside
2011 results in Table 1 and Figure 6. Table 1 demonstrates no
statistical difference in price due
to the presence or absence of public transit lines. But there are
significant differences based on
the type of store and on the price of groceries in the food desert
(in 2009) versus the average at
other grocery stores.
There is no significant difference in the price of groceries by
neighborhood socioeconomic
distress. Figure 6 shows a scatter-plot of food basket prices at
individual stores by socioeconomic
distress. The R-squared values for 2009 to 2011 are 0.063,
0.085, and 0.005, respectively, sug-
gesting no systematic relationship between high distress and
high prices for groceries. The only

outlier in Figure 6 represents the price of the basket in the food
desert neighborhood in 2009.
Sources | 483
2009
Low Medium High
FIGURE 6
Cost of groceries at grocery stores by neighborhood distress
score, 2009-2011
In 2009, the cost of a nutritious basket of food in the food
desert was $182.95 (in 2011 dollars).
In 2010, the cost at Mr. B's was $133.66 while the cost at
Witherbee's was $151.48. This pattern
held for pricing conducted in 2011, with prices of $144.37 at
Mr. B's and $169.12 at Witherbee's.
?-Tests were run on the public transit section of Table 1, and
one-way ANOVA tests were run
on the remaining values. Results from the r-tests indicate no
statistical significance in the price
differences between stores on public transit lines and those not
on transit lines. Tukey's tests were
run as a post hoc evaluation of the ANOVA analyses for the
cost of groceries by the type of store
and in the food desert versus grocery stores.

Results of Tukey's tests revealed that in 2009 prices at national
chains were significantly lower
than at other stores, while local chains and independent grocers
had significantly similar prices.
The food desert was significantly more expensive than all types
of grocery stores. In 2010, after
the opening of the new stores, the price of groceries at
independent grocers and the new stores in
the former food desert were statistically similar. Prices at
national chains were still significantly
cheaper than prices at local chains, and local chains were
cheaper than independents. In 2011,
prices at local chains and independent grocers were once again
statistically similar, and prices
at independent grocers and the stores in the former food desert
were also statistically similar.
Inequalities in the price or availability of nutritious food are
thus contingent on the store type,
not on neighborhood socioeconomic status.
As noted, there is a significant difference between the price of
groceries at grocery stores
versus the price of groceries in the food desert in 2009 (bottom
of Table 1). Food desert residents
shopping within the neighborhood in 2009 would have paid a
46% premium to procure a nutrifious
basket of food. The cost of groceries in the former food desert
is now statistically similar to the
cost at other independent grocers. This is important for two
reasons. First, research has shown
that most people (regardless of mobility status) shop within two
miles, or about 3,200 meters, of
their homes (Eisenhauer, 2001). Since there were initially no
grocery stores within two miles (or

3,200 meters) of the center of the neighborhood, if actual
shopping patterns were similar to this
research, residents would have been forced to shop at stores that
were not full-service grocers.
Second, a recent report conducted on downtown Flint indicated
that 30% of residents in this
neighborhood did not have a car available at their household
(ESRI, 2007). This suggests that
many residents either walk or take public transit to shop. It is
likely, then, that many people were
paying a premium in price due to constraints on time, mobility,
or resources.
The bottom of Table 1 illustrates the decline in the price of
nutritious foods seen by the opening
of Witherbee's Market and Mr. B's Foodland in the former food
desert. The combined effect of
the new stores translates into only a 5% premium over the
average cost at other grocery stores
around the county in 2011. Thus, while residents are still paying
slightly more for groceries,
they are paying considerably less than they were before the
stores opened. This refiects a recent
similar finding where the opening of a farmers' market in a food
desert considerably reduced the
price of groceries (Larsen and Gilhland, 2009).
DISCUSSION
The opening of two new grocery stores in and near a food desert
has infiuenced the price and
availability of nutritious foods. The number of residents
impacted by the addition of the new stores
understates its potential effect for two reasons. First, many
changes have occurred downtown in
recent years, including new housing developments that have

brought new permanent residents
to the neighborhood. Second, approximately 1,000 students have
moved into the neighborhood
in the last three years as a result of the growth of the local
university (Flint Journal, 2009).
Because many of these students are itinerant year-to-year (and
therefore possibly not included in
the census count for downtown) future census counts may not
adequately reflect the population
in this neighborhood. If the stores had not opened, the issues
with this food desert may have been
exacerbated as new residents and students moved in only to find
inadequate sources of nutritious
food.
Evidence from a survey conducted prior to the opening of the
new stores suggests that living
in a food desert can have detrimental effects. The survey found
that 21% of residents in the
city have at least some degree of difficulty accessing a "grocery
store or supermarket that has a
good variety of fresh fruits and vegetables" (n — 730)
(Prevention Research Center of Michigan,
2009). This suggests that, among those outside of walking
distance to a grocery store, accessing
Retail Sources I 485
nutritious foods can be particularly problematic. The same
survey indicated that only 25% of
city residents consume at least 5 servings of fruits and
vegetables per day (« = 687) (Prevention
Research Center of Michigan, 2009). Because there is a positive

relationship between proximity
to grocery stores and dietary quality, the addition of these new
stores may make healthy eating
easier for those interested in improving their health status.
The addition of the grocery stores in and near the food desert
improved food access in both
geographic and economic dimensions. Geographic access has
been improved because residents
can now access a grocery store downtown. Residents previously
shopping in the neighborhood
were relegated to a handful of convenience stores or the
farmers' market. Due to the addition
of these two stores, an increase of 3% of the entire city
population can now walk to a grocery
store. Economic access was also improved by the new stores.
For residents originally shopping for
groceries entirely within the neighborhood, a considerable
premium would have been paid, as this
and past research has shown (Drewnowski et al., 2004; Furey et
al., 2001; Larsen and Gilliland,
2009). Those shopping outside the neighborhood would have
expended additional resources on
travel to reach more distant grocery stores. A resident shopping
by the nutritious food basket
guidelines every two weeks would save approximately $800 at
Witherbee's or $1250 at Mr. B's
over the course of a year. In Flint, this equates with between 2
and 3 months' rent in a 1-bedroom
apartment (Apartment Ratings, 2011). For a low-income family,
this cost-savings would result in
a considerable change in quality of life.
The farmers' market in itself offers a microcosm of the issue of
accessing nutritious food
downtown prior to the opening of the grocery stores. It is

competitive for some types of fresh
produce, but does not offer many staple foods like cereal, and
many other products like meats and
cheeses are only available with higher mark-ups. Additionally,
the farmers' market is only open
three days a week, reflecting a common concern that residents
were required to "plan ahead" if
intending to shop there. Finally, it is also distant from the
center of the neighborhood, and is less
accessible by bus than Witherbee's or Mr. B's. Thus, while the
market serves a vital role in the
neighborhood, the contribution of the new grocery stores is
significant both geographically and
economically.
Still, there are important pieces of evidence that this research
does not answer. Cummins,
Findlay, Petticrew, and Sparks, (2008) indicate that, even when
presented with a new food source,
many people do not deviate from their old habits. Because no
customer surveys were taken,
the present research is unable to state whether people shop at
these new stores. Further, even
assuming that residents switched stores, this research cannot
determine whether dietary habits
are improving as a result. Additionally, cultural and social
factors may have a stronger influence
on what people will choose to purchase even when given so-
called healthier choices (Cummins,
Curtis, Diez-Roux, & Macintyre, 2007), and environmental cues
can cause people to make
sub-optimal choices even when intending to act in their self-
interest (Just and Payne, 2009).
Policy Implications

The success of these stores is compelling for policymakers.
Initially, the development of With-
erbee's was a grassroots movement by community members
interested in a full-service grocery
store for their neighborhood. Using local community groups like
the Neighborhood Improvement
and Preservation Project and the Local Initiatives Support
Corporation to lobby funding from
higher-level organizations, sponsors from the State of Michigan,
the U.S. Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development, and local community foundations
soon joined to provide financial
support. The project became a statewide model to support
efforts to bring small grocery stores to
other under-serviced urban neighborhoods (LISC-Flint, 2008).
This model has been successful in part because of efforts by the
Downtown Development
Authority of the City of Flint to increase security in the
downtown core to entice area residents to
frequent the new developments. This strategy echoes Bowes
(2007), who indicated that "public
policy strategies meant to encourage retail development in a
particular part of the city such as
downtown need to include efforts to reduce crime" (p. 88).
The small scale of the grocery stores means a smaller
percentage of the market is needed to
remain profitable. The cost-savings to consumers provided in
the results section are in line with
the grocer margins projected by Witherbee's financial backers
(27-29%), whose plan was to

remain competitive with large-scale grocery retailers (20-24%
margin) while staying far below
the margins expected for convenience stores (40%) (LISC-Flint,
2008). A market analysis of the
community prior to the opening of Witherbee's indicated a 60%
leakage rate for money spent
outside the neighborhood, suggesting a large untapped demand
for goods (see also Carr, 1999;
Porter, 1995). The report indicates that the market would need
to re-capture 4.3% of the leakage
rate to remain profitable (LISC-Flint, 2008). If Witherbee's
captures this part of the market
demand, it could serve as a model for future public/private
partnerships to develop grocery stores
in other disadvantaged neighborhoods in this region and
elsewhere.
Because Witherbee's resulted from a grassroots movement, it is
instructive for plan-
ners/policymakers and conventional retailers. The attention
given to Witherbee's by local investors
likely contributed to its opening, since close attention was given
to the needs of the neighbor-
hood and neighborhood-based leadership was present
throughout. Both of these elements are
suggested as necessary components in local economic
development (Carley, Kirk, & Mclntosh,
2001). The organization that aided Witherbee's (LISC) was also
the catalyst for a grocery store in
Harlem (Lavin, 2000). Since not all revitaiization comes from
grassroots movements, however, it
is important to engage the public and private sectors in planning
for new development. The new
grocery stores in Flint demonstrate the policy implication that
"public officials cannot rely on
regional growth to solve the problems of poor neighborhoods"

(Blair and Carroll, 2007, p. 274).
Indeed, both stores owe their existence to the local-level
investors who observed a need for retail
within their neighborhood.
Attracting grocery stores and other retail to urban centers can
be difficult where site availability,
human resources, or aid programs for new retail are unavailable
or sparse (Nayga and Weinburg,
1999; Pothukuchi, 2005), and many governments and would-be
investors can be shy of taking the
risk. This aversion is a potential reason for metropolitan
disparities seen in urban neighborhoods
(Blair and Carroll, 2007). Yet, there is clearly potential for
retail to locate in urban centers. A
government-sponsored initiative in the U.K. recently spurred
the development of a supermarket
within a designated regeneration area (Mitchell and Kirkup,
2003). By incentivizing development
in this disadvantaged neighborhood, the government was able to
match retailers with suitable
areas to develop stores that would be both profitable from a
business standpoint and restorative
from a local community development standpoint. This appears
to be the case in Flint with the
opening of Witherbee's, and additional retail initiatives have
flourished in the neighborhood.
Witherbee's may serve as a catalyst for multiplier effects on
local economic development.
This community-centered strategy is in contrast to the large-
scale, tourist-oriented economic
development strategies of the 1970s and 1980s. These past
projects often did not deliver on
their promises of jobs (Krumholz, 1991), and frequently failed
due to their reliance on outside

populations to sustain their high operating costs.
Investment in retail may not be a catch-all solution for
improving health status (Cummins et al.,
2008; Cummins & Macintyre, 2002), but the addition of new
food retail does lessen the social
inequalities created when these areas were initially abandoned
by grocery stores (Carley et al.,
2001; Dunkley, Helling, & Sawicki, 2004; Williams and
Hubbard, 2001). As mentioned earlier,
various tax and zoning incentives were given by the City of
Flint to the operators of Witherbee's
Retaii Sources 1 487
(City of Flint, 2010), suggesting that municipal governments are
beginning to play a larger role
in healthy eating. Elsewhere, other initiatives like the FRESH
Food Store Program also facilitate
the development of nutritious food sellers in distressed
communities by providing tax and zoning
incentives to qualified retailers in New York (Food Retail
Expansion to Support Health, 2011).
Although this paper necessarily cannot consider all prospects
for food as local economic
development, formal-sector interventions like those seen in this
paper will not necessarily occur
in all neighborhoods where there is a need. Therefore, it is
useful to briefly consider that where
investment in retail is not possible or desired, there exist many
movements which emphasize local
food networks as a form of economic development. The national

Growing Power movement is one
of many organizations that provide training and support for
prospective growers (Growing Power,
2011). Beyond this, the Growing Home movement in Chicago
combines job training and organic
agriculture to provide employment opportunities for troubled
residents (Growing Home, 2011).
Given that food is an essential building block of life and many
opportunities for growth exist
within food systems (including locally), these programs may
offer promise as community and
economic development strategies, especially in neighborhoods
where conventional food retailers
are unlikely to invest.
CONCLUSIONS
The contributions of this research will benefit researchers,
planners, and investors. An empirical
mixed-methods approach was employed to locate food deserts in
urban areas. GIS was used to
map food retailers and census data to determine potential food
deserts, while food basket pricing
was conducted to examine variations in the price and
availability of nutritious foods. The GIS
approach can be used in other urban settings to locate potential
food deserts, giving other
communities evidence for creating policies to support
community development in disadvantaged
neighborhoods through food retail.
This research pinpointed potential food desert neighborhoods in
Flint, Michigan. Because the
city exemplifies the problems of many post-industrial shrinking
cities of North America and
Western Europe, the methods employed in this research can be

replicated elsewhere. Food basket
pricing before and after the opening of two new grocery stores
showed that much of downtown
Flint is no longer a food desert. This approach included the
extrapolation of pricing to all grocery
stores within the same chain to provide a view of grocery
pricing throughout the county. The
finding that spatial and economic accessibility were restored to
a food desert is valuable for many
parties: the city, since downtown now appears more attractive to
prospective apartment tenants and
homeowners; the new grocery stores, as they may be seen as the
conquerors of the food desert; in-
vestors in urban retail, since the stores may provide a multiplier
effect in economic development in
these neighborhoods; and the residents who have lived in the
area for years, since the benefits they
see from lower nutritious food costs may contribute to improved
dietary habits, and even health.
This research is a valuable starting point for learning more
about food-based interventions
in impoverished communities. Where communities are aware of
future store openings, pre-
intervention studies like this will help to identify areas in need
of attention. This will allow
stores to target their product range to best suit area residents. It
is through better understanding
the interaction of consumer behavior and the food environment
that planners, policymakers,
investors, and researchers can make effective changes to
improve quality of life and health
outcomes in once deprived urban areas through profitable
community development initiatives.
This article provides a foundation for identifying and evaluating
areas for these interventions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The authors wish to thank the
Genesee County Land Bank, FHnt NIPP, and Michael
Freeman for their time and the use of their data.
APPENDIX
Ontario Nutritious Food Basket Items
each
24
pack
24
2qts
Ib
Ib
Ib
Ib
Ib
pack
Ib
1 Ib
14.75
12
28
32
64
48
42

42
18
14
16
7.5
Milk Products
2% Milk (gallon)
Yogurt
Cheddar cheese, Medium
Processed cheese slices
Mozzarella cheese
Vanilla ice cream
Meat and alternatives
Round steak
Stewing beef
Ground beef, medium
Pork chops, loin
Chicken legs
Wieners, beef & pork
Sliced ham
Frozen fish fillets
Pink salmon, canned
Tuna, flaked, canned
Large eggs (dozen)
Baked beans, canned
Dry navy beans
Peanut butter
Grain products
Bread, enriched, white
Bread, whole wheat
Hot dog/hamburg rolls
Flour, white, all purpose

Flour, whole wheat
Macaroni/spaghetti
Rice, long-grain, white
Macaroni/cheese dinner
Oatmeal, regular
Corn flakes
Shreddies (chex)
Soda crackers, salted
Social tea biscuits
Ib
64
12
Ib
28
46
Ib
Ib
Ib
Ib
24
14
8 lbs
32
head
head
3 lbs
head
1
head
head
Ib
1
Ib
16 oz
14.5

14.5
45 oz
Ib
48 oz
16 oz
5 lbs
18 oz
FruitA/eggies
Oranges
Apple juice, canned or tetra
Orange juice, frozen
Tomatoes
Whole fomatoes, canned
Tomato juice, canned
Apples
Bananas
Grapes
Pears
Raisins
Fruit cocktail, canned
Potatoes, fresh
Frozen french fried potatoes
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots, fresh
Celery
Cucumber
Lettuce, iceberg
Lettuce, romaine
Onions
Green pepper
Turnips
Mixed vegetables, frozen
Kernel corn, canned

Green peas, canned
Other
Margarine, tub
Butter
Canola oil
Salad dressing
Sugar, white
Strawberry jam
REFERENCES
Apartment Ratings. (2011). Flint apartments pricing and Flint
MI apartment reviews. Retrieved June 3, 2011,
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/MI-Flint-Pricing.html
Apparicio, P., Cloutier, M.-S., & Shearmur, R. (2007). The case
of Montreal's missing food deserts: Evaluation
of accessibility to food supermarkets. International Journal of
Health Geographies. 6(4). Retrieved from
http://www.ij-healthgeographics.eom/content/6/l/4
Beaumont, J., Lang, T., Leather, S., & Mucklow, C. (1995).
Report from the policy sub-group to the Nutrition
Task Force Low Income Project Team of the Department of
Health. Radlett, UK: Institute of Grocery
Distribution.
Binkley, J. K., Eales, J., & Jekanowski, M. (2000). The relation
between dietary change and rising US obesity.
International Journal of Obesity, 24, 1032-1039.
Blair, J. P., & Carroll, M. C. (2007). Inner-city neighborhoods
and metropolitan development. Economic Devel-

opment Quarterly, 27(3), 263-277.
Block, D., & Kouba, J. (2006). A comparison of the availability
and affordability of a market basket in two
communities in the Chicago area. Public Health and Nutrition,
9, 837-845.
1 Community Development and the Influence of New Food
Retail Sources I 489
Bowes, D. R. (2007). A two-stage model of the simultaneous
relationship between retail development and crime.
Economic Development Quarterly, 2/(1), 79-90.
Campbell. M. C. (2004). Building a common table: The role for
planning in community food systems. Journal of
Planning Education and Research, 23, 341-355.
Carley, M., Kirk, K., & Mclntosh. S. (2001 ). Retailing,
sustainability and neighbourhood regeneration. York, UK:
Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Carr, J. H. (1999). Community, capital and markets: A new
paradigm for community reinvestment. The Neighbor-
works' Journal, 17(3), pp. 20-23.
Chung, C , & Myers, S. (1999). Do the poor pay more for food?
An analysis of grocery store availability and food
price disparities. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 33(2), 276-296.
City of Flint. (2010). City of Flint consolidated annual
performance and evaluation report. Flint, MI: Author.
Clifton, K. J. (2004). Mobility strategies and food shopping for

low-income families: A case study. Journal of
Planning Education and Research, 23, 402-413.
Cummins, S., Curtis, S., Diez-Roux, A. V., & Macintyre, S.
(2007). Understanding and representing "place" in
health research: A relational approach. Social Science &
Medicine, 65, 1825-1838.
Cummins, S., Findlay, A., Petticrew, M., & Sparks, L. (2008).
Retail-led regeneration and store-switching be-
haviour. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 15, 288-
295.
Cummins, S., & Macintyre, S. (2002). A systematic study of an
urban foodscape: The price and availability of
food in greater Glasgow. Urban Studies, Í 9 ( l 1), 2115-2130.
Darmon, N., Ferguson, E. L., & Briend, A. (2002). A cost
constraint alone has adverse effects on food selection and
nutrient density: An analysis of human diets by linear
programming. Journal of Nutrition, 132, 3764-3771.
Donkin, A., Dowler, E., Stevenson, S., & Turner, S. (1999).
Mapping access to food at a local level. British Food
Journal, 101(1), 554-564.
Drewnowski, A., Darmon, N., & Briend, A. (2004). Replacing
fats and sweets with vegetables and fruits—A
question of cost. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 1555-
1559.
Dunkley, B., Helling, A., &. Sawicki, D. (2004). Accessibility
versus scale: Examining the tradeoffs in grocery
stores. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 23(A), 3 8

7 ^ 0 1 .
Eisenhauer, E. (2001). In poor health: Supermarket redlining
and urban nutrition. GeoJournal, 53, 125-133.
ESRI Data & Maps. (2007). LISC Center for Commercial
Revitaiization—Neighborhood market snapshot. Red-
lands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute.
Flint Journal. (2009). Riverfront Character Inn to become
residence hall. February 2; http://www.mlive.com/
business/mid-
michigan/index.ssf/2009/02/former_flint_hotel_to_become_u.ht
ml.
Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH). (2011).
Retrieved November 11, 2011, from
http://www.nycedc.com/FINANCINGINCENTIVES/TAXEXEM
PTIONS/FRESH/Pages/fresh.aspx
Freedman, D. A., & Bell, B. A. (2009). Access to healthful
foods among an urban food insecure population:
Perceptions versus reality. Journal of Urban Health, 86(6), 825-
838.
Friel, S., Walsh, O., & McCarthy, D. (2006). The irony of a rich
country: Issues of financial access to and
availability of healthy food in the Republic of Ireland. Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health,
60, 1013-1019.
Furey, S., Strugnell, C , & Mcllveen, H. (2001). An
investigation of the potential existence of "food deserts" in
rural and urban areas of Northern Ireland. Agriculture and
Human Values, 18, 447-457.

Gatrell, A. C , & Löytönen, M. (1998). GIS and health.
London:Taylor & Francis.
Gilliland, J. (2010). The built environment and obesity:
Trimming waistlines through neighbourhood design. In
T. Bunting, P Filion, & R. Walker (Eds), Canadian cities in
transition (4th ed, pp. 3 9 1 ^ 1 0 ) . Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Gilliland, J., & Ross, N. (2005). Opportunities for video lottery
gambling: An environmental analysis. Canadian
Journal of Public Health, 96, 55-59.
Growing Power. (2011). Retrieved November 11, 2011, from
http://www.growingpower.org/
Growing Home. (2011). Retrieved November 11, 2011, from
http://www.growinghomeinc.org/
Hanson, S., & Schwab, M. (1987). Accessibility and intraurban
travel. Environment and Piarming A, 19, 735-748.
Health Canada. (1998). Ontario nutritious food basket. Ottawa:
Ministry of Public Works and Government
Services.
Highsmith, A. R. (2009). Demolition means progress: Race,
class, and the deconstruction of the American dream
in Flint, Michigan. Unpublished doctoral dissertation.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Hollander, J. B. (2010). Moving toward a shrinking cities
metric: Analyzing land use changes associated with

depopulation in Flint, Michigan. Cityscape: A Journal of Policy
Developmetit and Research, /2( 1 ), 133-152.
Jacobs, A. J. (2009). The impacts of variations in development
context on employment growth: A comparison of
central cities in Michigan and Ontario, 1980-2006. Economic
Development Quarterly, 23{4), 351-371.
Jetter, K. M., & Cassady, D. L. (2006). The availability and cost
of healthier food alternatives. American Journal
of Preventive Medicine, 5(1), 38-44.
Jones, K., & Simmons, J. (1990). The retail environment.
London: Routledge.
Just, D. R., & Payne, C. R. (2009). Obesity: Can behavioral
economics help? Annals of Behavioral Medicine,
iS(l), 47-55.
Krumholz, N. (1991). Equity and local economic development.
Economic Development Quarterly, 5(4), 291-300.
Laraia, B. A., Siega-Riz, A. M., Kaufman, J. S., & Jones, S. J.
(2004). Proximity of supermarkets is positively
associated with diet quality index for pregnancy. Preventive
Medicine, 31, 10-17.
Larsen, K., & Gilliland, J. (2008). Mapping the evolution of
"food deserts" in a Canadian city: Supermarket
accessibility in London, Ontario, 1961-2005. International
Journal of Health Geographies, 7(16).
Larsen, K., & Gilliland, J. (2009). A farmers' market in a food
desert: Evaluating impacts on the price and
availability of healthy food. Health & Place, 75(4), 1158-1162.
Lavin, M. (2000). Problems and opportunities of retailing in the
US "inner city." Journal of Retailing and Consumer

Services, 7,47-57.
Lewis, L. B., Sloane, D. C , Nascimento, L. M., Diamant, A. L.,
Guinyard, J. J., Flynn, G., & Yancey, A. K. (2005).
African Americans' access to healthy food options in South Los
Angeles restaurants. American Journal of
Public Health, 95, 66&-673.
LISC-Flint (Local Initiatives Support Corporation-Flint).
(2008). Witherbee's project information Flint, MI:
Author.
Mayer, H. J., & Greenberg, M. R. (2001). Coming back from
economic despair: Case studies of small- and
medium-sized American cities. Economic Development
Quarterly, 15(3), 203-216.
Mitchell, A., & Kirkup, M. (2003) Retail development and
urban regeneration: A case study of Castle Vale.
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Matwgement,
31(9), 4 5 1 ^ 5 8 .
Mokdad, A. H., Ford, E. S., Bowman, B. A., Dietz, W. H.,
Vinicor, F., Bales, V. S., & Marks, J. S. (2003).
Prevalance of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk
factors, 2001. Journal of the American
Medical Association, 289(1), 76-79.
Moore, L. V., Diez-Roux, A. V., & Brines, S. (2008).
Comparing perception-based and geographic information
system (GlS)-based characteristics of the local food
environment. Journal of Urban Health, 85(2), 206-216.
Morland, K., Diez-Roux, A. V., & Wing, S. (2006).

Supermarkets, other food stores, and obesity: The atheroscle-
rosis risk in communities study. American Journal of Preventive
Medicine, 30, 333-349.
Morland, K. B., & Evenson, K. R. (2009). Obesity prevalence
and the local food environment. Health & Place,
75,491-495.
Morland, K., & Filomena, S. (2007). Disparities in the
availability of fruits and vegetables between racially
segregated urban neighborhoods. Public Health Nutrition,
70(12), 1481-1489.
Nathoo, T., & Shoveller, J. (2003). Do healthy food baskets
assess food security? Chronic Disease in Canada, 24,
65-69.
Nayga, R. M., Jr., & Weinburg, Z. (1999). Supermarket access
in the inner cities. Journal of Retailing and
Consumer Services, 6, 141—145.
Pampalon, R., Hamel, D., Gamache, P., & Raymond, G. (2010).
A deprivation index for health planning in Canada.
Chronic Disease in Canada, 29(4), 178-191.
Paeratakul, S., Ferdinand, D., Champagne, C , Ryan, D., &
Bray. G. (2003). Fast-food consumption among US
adults and children: Dietary and nutrient intake profile. Journal
of the American Dietetic Association,
103(10), 1332-1338.
Pearson, T , Russell, J., Campbell, M. J., & Barker, M. E.
(2005). Do "food deserts" influence fruit and vegetable
consumption?—A cross-sectional study. Appetite, 45, 195-197.

Polk, R. L. & Co. (1998). Polk's Flint City Directory. Detroit,
MI: Author.
Polk, R. L. & Co. (1999). Polk's Flint City Directory. Detroit,
MI: Author.
Porter, M. E. (1995). The competitive advantage of the inner
city. Harvard Business Review, (May-June), 5 5 - 7 1 .
Poston, W. S. C , II, & Foreyt, J. P. (1999). Obesity is an
environmental issue. Atherosclerosis, 146, 201-209.
Pothukuchi, K. (2004). Community food assessment: A first
step in planning for community food security. Journal
of Planning Education and Research, 23(A), 356-377.
Pothukuchi, K. (2005). Attracting supermarkets to inner-city
neighborhoods: Economic development outside the
box. Economic Development Quarterly, 19(3), 232-244.
Pothukuchi, K., & Kaufman, J. L. (2000). The food system: A
stranger to the planning field. Journal of the
American Planning Association, 66(2), 112-124.
Prevention Research Center of Michigan. (2009). Speak to your
health community survey. Ann Arbor, MI: Author.
Reese, L. A., & Ye, M. (2011). Policy versus place luck:
Achieving local economic prosperity. Economic Devel-
opment Quarterly, 25, 221-236. doi:
10.1177/0891242411408292
Reidpath, D. D.. Bums, C , Garrard, J., Mahoney, M.. &

Townsend, M. (2002). An ecological study of the
relationship between social and environmental determinants of
obesity. Health & Place, 8, 141-145.
Rose, D., & Richards, R. (2004). Food store access and
household fruit and vegetable use among participants in
the US Food Stamp Program. Public Health Nutrition, 7(8),
1081-1088.
Sadler, R. C , Gilliland, J. A., & Arku, G. (2011). An
application of the edge effect in measuring accessibility
to multiple food retailer types in rural Southwestern Ontario,
Canada. International Journal of Health
Geographies, 10(34).
Segoe and Associates. (1960). Comprehensive master plan of
Flint, Michigan, and environs. Cincinnati: Ladislas
Segoe and Associates.
Smoyer-Tomic, K. E., Spence, J. C , & Amrhein, C. (2006).
Food deserts in the prairies? Supermarket accessibility
and neighborhood need in Edmonton, Canada. The Professional
Geographer, 58(3), 307-326.
Travers, K. (1996). The social organization of nutritional
inequities. Social Science & Medicine, 43(4), 543-553.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Census 2010. Retrieved May 25,
2011, from http://2010.census.gov/2010census/
U.S. Census Bureau. (2000a). Census 2000 census block group
data. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bg2000.html
U.S. Census Bureau. (2000b). Census 2000 urban and rural
classification. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/ua_2k.html
Wang, M. C , Kim, S., Gonzalez, A. A., MacLeod, K. E., &
Winkleby, M. A. (2007). Socioeconomic and food-
related physical characteristics of the neighborhood
environment are associated with body mass index.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61, 491-498.
White, M. (2007). Food access and obesity. Obesity Review,
5(1), 99-107.
Williams, P., & Hubbard, P. (2001). Who is disadvantaged?
Retail change and social exclusion. International
Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 11(3),
267-286.
Winkler, E., Turrell, G., & Patterson, C. (2006). Does living in
a disadvantaged area entail limited opportunities to
purchase fresh fruit and vegetables in terms of price,
availability, and variety? Findings from the Brisbane
Food Study. Health & Place, 12, 741-748.
Wrigley, N. (2001). Transforming the corporate landscape of
US food retailing: Market power, financial re-
engineering and regulation. Journal of Economic & Social
Geography, 93(1), 62-82.
Zimmer, B. G., & Hawley, A. H. (1956a). Approaches to the
solution of fringe problems: Preferences of residents
in the Flint metropolitan area. Public Administration Review,
16(4), 258-268.
Zimmer, B. G., & Hawley, A. H. (1956b). Home owners and
attitude toward tax increase: Flint metropolitan area.
Journal of the American Planning Association, 22(2), 65-74.

Copyright of Journal of Urban Affairs is the property of Wiley-
Blackwell and its content may
not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print,
download, or email articles for
individual use.
4 ENVIRONMENT WWW.ENVIRONMENTMAGAZINE.ORG
VOLUME 60 NUMBER 1
by
Bhawani
Venkataraman
The Paradox
of Water
and the
Flint Crisis
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
WWW.ENVIRONMENTMAGAZINE.ORG ENVIRONMENT 5
The Flint River in Flint, Michigan,
the source of the contaminated water

distributed to residents of the city.
eople in the United States have grown up believing two
assumptions
about tap water, assumptions that appear so basic they hardly
need to be stated:
(1) that there is a virtually unlimited supply of safe drinking
water from the tap available
to each household and (2) that the cost to deliver that tap water
is small. So, what is to be
made of the drinking-water crisis in Flint, Michigan, in which
residents drank contami-
nated water for more than a year, resulting in severe health and
social impacts and a very
costly cleanup that is still not complete? Unfortunately, these
assumptions have been far
from correct all along, and only now are the fallacies becoming
evident.
For a country to ensure access to safe drinking water for all its
citizens, drinking-water
management practices must start from the premise that given
water’s chemical properties,
a source used for drinking water will have dissolved compounds
and microorganisms.
This translates into requiring careful and complex treatment,
monitoring, and assessment
at all stages from source to tap, to render the water safe. This
appears not to have been
P
Im
ag
e

co
ur
te
sy
o
f F
lin
tW
at
er
S
tu
dy
.o
rg
VOLUME 60 NUMBER 1
understood by the decision makers in
Flint. Instead, their decisions appear to
have been driven primarily by the desire
to keep water management costs down,
a very risky policy, considering the in-
herent chemical properties of water.

What went wrong in Flint that re-
sulted in the contaminations of the city’s
drinking water supply?1,2,3,4,5,6 What went
wrong in the decision making that led
to the Flint water crisis?7 And most im-
portantly, what can be done to prevent
future Flints?
The Paradox of Water:
Essential to Life but Also a
Potential Threat
Water is essential for life to exist on
Earth. However, from a human health
perspective, it is “safe” drinking water
that is essential. According to the World
Health Organization, the definition of
safe drinking water is water that “does
not represent any significant risk to
health over a lifetime of consumption,
including different sensitivities that may
occur between life stages.”8
The paradox of water is that the very
same properties that make it essential
for life also make it very easily contami-
nated to the point where it potentially
becomes a threat to life. From a chemi-
cal perspective, the formula of water,
H2O, dictates its molecular structure
and properties. This translates into wa-
ter being a liquid on Earth’s surface and
into water having the ability to dissolve
almost any compound. Water is said to
be the “universal solvent.” This solvent
property of water is key to sustaining

life. The liquid water medium allows for
biologically important molecules to dis-
solve, interact, and react, which are all
essential to the chemical processes that
sustain life. At the same time, water’s
ability to dissolve compounds makes
it very challenging to keep water safe.
This does not mean that everything
that dissolves in water is harmful, but
because water is such a good solvent,
chemical compounds readily dissolve in
it to varying degrees. Once they are dis-
solved, if these compounds happen to
be toxic, then consuming this water is a
potential threat to health.
Even if a compound is not highly
soluble in water, it could dissolve to an
extent that exceeds its toxicity level,
rendering the water harmful. Certainly,
this is the case for the 80+ chemical
contaminants currently included in the
U.S. National Primary Drinking Wa-
ter Regulations9 under the Safe Drink-
ing Water Act (SDWA).10 Some of the
maximum allowed concentration lev-
els (or maximum contaminant levels
[MCLs]) are extremely low. For ex-
ample, 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane,
used as a fumigant in agriculture, has
an MCL of 0.0002 mg/L (0.2 parts per
billion [ppb]).11 The MCL of dioxin,
emitted during the burning of waste, is
0.00000003 mg/L (or 0.03 parts per tril-
lion [ppt]).10 All this is to say that pre-

venting compounds from dissolving in
water at levels that do not exceed their
MCLs is challenging. Further, once a
compound is dissolved removing it is
not trivial—again because water is the
universal solvent. Life thrives in water,
and if the microorganisms present in
water are pathogens then this is of con-
cern for human consumption. In fact,
a primary reason that so many people
across the globe lack access to safe water
is that the principal source of contami-
nation is pathogens. Once water is con-
taminated by chemicals or pathogens,
rendering it safe requires well-designed
treatments followed by careful monitor-
ing that ensures that the treated water
does not get recontaminated.
There are many recent examples
of the ease with which water gets con-
taminated. After Flint, there has been
increasing awareness of the number of
communities that have unsafe levels of
lead in the water they consume. A re-
cent report by the Natural Resources
Defense Council indicates that in 2015,
water delivered by 1,110 water systems
in the United States, serving about 3.9
million people, had lead levels that ex-
ceeded the action level of 15 ppb.6
In January 2014, a chemical spill
from a storage tank contaminated the
Elk River in West Virginia, which is

used as a source for drinking water for
residents in the Charleston, West Vir-
ginia, area. The chemical methylcyclo-
hexane methanol entered the drinking-
water system and caused residents to
experience stomach and skin infec-
tions.12 While a recent study suggests
no known long-term health risks,13 the
immediate health impacts—nausea, ir-
ritations—required residents to rely on
bottled water for several days. This spill
resulted in an estimated $60 million cost
to the local economy, which does not in-
clude cleanup costs.14
In the fall of 2014, an analysis of
drinking-water samples from the town
of Hoosick Falls, New York, revealed
the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid
(PFOA).15,16 The PFOA contamination
was a result of its use in a local plastics
plant. It was not until late 2015 that the
New York State Department of Envi-
ronmental Conservation (DEC) acted
to address the presence of PFOA in the
drinking water. The DEC installed a fil-
tration system in the water treatment
plant to address the dissolved PFOA
and in March 2016 announced that the
drinking water was safe for consump-
tion.17 There have also been concerns
that chemicals used in firefighting
foams have been detected in the drink-
ing water in some military bases.18
These compounds include PFOA
and other perfluoroalkyl compounds

(PFAs). The Pentagon is looking into
possible contamination by these chemi-
cals in the drinking water in almost 400
military bases.19 In September 2017 the
organization Environmental Working
Group released a report on the presence
of a solvent 1,4-dioxane (not to be con-
fused with dioxin, mentioned earlier)
The paradox of water
is that the very same
properties that make
it essential for life
also make it very
easily contaminated
to the point where it
potentially becomes
a threat to life.
in drinking-water systems in 27 U.S.
states that serve 7 million people.20 All
of these compounds, PFOA, PFA, and
1,4-dioxane, are considered to be likely
carcinogens but currently none are reg-
ulated contaminants under the National
Drinking Water Standards.18,21 All three,
along with many other compounds, are
under consideration by the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) for

possible inclusion in the list of regulated
drinking-water contaminants.22
Given the fundamental chemistry of
water that allows it to be easily contami-
nated, the preceding examples just serve
to emphasize that drinking-water treat-
ment and management must be care-
fully scrutinized through this chemical
lens. A precautionary principle should
be employed, in which water manage-
ment decisions start with the assump-
tion that the source water is contami-
nated and will require careful treatment
and monitoring to ensure that the
treated water meets standards. Further,
even after treatment, there must be care-
ful monitoring to ensure that the water
is not compromised between the treat-
ment plant and the consumer. The cost
of such an approach may seem on the
face of it to be high. However, the Flint
water crisis is a tragic example of why
this up-front investment is always worth
it, as the social and economic costs to
address the impact of unsafe water are
always substantially higher.
The Flint Water Treatment Plant, Flint, Michigan, which
personnel warned was not up to the task of adequately
treating the water from the Flint River.
iS
to

ck
/L
in
da
P
ar
to
n
VOLUME 60 NUMBER 1
What Happened in Flint,
Michigan?*
Prior to 1967, the city of Flint re-
ceived treated water from the Flint Wa-
ter Service Center (FWSC), which used
the Flint River as its source.7,23,24 In 1967,
as a result of rising population and the
inability of the FWSC to deliver suf-
ficient water to the residents, the city
of Flint switched to receiving treated
drinking water from the Detroit Water
and Sewage Department (DWSD),7,23,24
which uses the Great Lakes Water Sys-
tem (Lake Huron and the Detroit River
systems) as the water source.25 While
the switch to the DWSD was triggered
by capacity, it was clear even at that

time that the quality of the water in the
Flint River was being compromised due
to discharges from industries and the
municipality and runoff from streets.23
Between 1967 and 2014, the residents
of Flint received treated water from
the DWSD. Over the years, the FWSC
served as a backup to the DWSD.7,23,24
With the decline of the U.S. auto-
mobile industry toward the end of the
20th century, the population of Flint de-
creased from a peak of almost 200,000
residents in 1960 to just below 100,000.
Along with this population decline
came a shrinking tax base and severe
budget problems. By 2011, things be-
came so bad financially that the gov-
ernor of Michigan appointed an emer-
gency manager to take over the Flint
budget and look for ways to bring the
deficit under control.23 The emergency
manager had decision-making author-
ity over Flint city officials.
During 2012–2013, the emergency
manager decided to shift the drinking
water supply for Flint from DWSD to the
Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA).
This was a “cost-saving” measure, since
the KWA offered water rates lower than
those of the DWSD.1–6,23 The KWA is in
the process of building a water pipeline
to bring water from Lake Huron with a
target completion date of 2017. Need-

ing an interim solution, the emergency
manager opted to turn to the Flint River
as the source for municipal water and
to use the water treatment plant that
had not been in consistent use since
the 1960s. 1–6,23 Since the FWSC was not
fully operational, the city of Flint hired
an engineering firm to provide plans for
upgrades to the FWSC to treat the Flint
River water.26 This same engineering
firm was also hired for the construction
of the upgrades.26
On April 25, 2014, the water from the
Flint River treated by the FWSC began
flowing through the pipes of the city de-
livering water to the residents.1–6 There
is evidence suggesting that personnel in
the FWSC warned against opening the
plant at this time, as there were concerns
that the facility was not ready to treat
*Table 1 lists acronyms and Table 2 lists names and role of key
players referenced in this article.
Table 1. List of Acronyms Referenced in the Article
Acronym Agency
CSMR chloride to sulfate mass ratio
DEC Department of Environmental Conservation
DWSD Detroit Water and Sewage Department
FWSC Flint Water Service Center
KWA Karegnondi Water Authority
MCHM methylcyclohexane methanol
MCL maximum contaminant level
MDEQ Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

MDGs UN Millennium Development Goals
MDHHS Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
PFA perfluoroalkyl
PFOA perfluorooctanoic acid
SDWA Safe Drinking Water Act
THMs trihalomethanes
TTHMs total trihalomethanes
Table 2. Names and Roles of Key People Referenced in the
Article
Name Role
Lee Anne Walters Flint resident/activist
Miguel Del Toral EPA employee
Marc Edwards Professor of civil and environmental engineering,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Mona Hanna-Attisha Pediatrician, Hurley Medical Center, Flint,
MI
Governor Snyder Governor of Michigan
and monitor the water that was leaving
the facility.7,27
By May 2014, problems with the wa-
ter being delivered to the residents of
Flint were evident. The water was often
brown and had a foul odor, and some
residents complained of skin rashes and
hair loss when they bathed.1–6 The city
officials assured the community that the
water was safe.1–6 In August, the city is-

sued an Escherichia coli alert and a call
to residents to boil the tap water before
drinking it.1–7 These “boil alerts” contin-
ued until September 9, 2014.
The next alert came on January 2,
2015, when residents were informed by
city officials that the drinking water leav-
ing the water treatment plant violated
the SDWA due to high levels of a class
of compounds called trihalomethanes
(THMs).28,29 These compounds are regu-
lated under the SDWA as total trihalo-
methanes (TTHMs) because they are
known carcinogens, with potential health
impacts over long-term exposure.30
After January 2015, the problems
escalated. As early as January 9, 2015,
some water samples from the Univer-
sity of Michigan–Flint campus revealed
unsafe levels of lead.1 In February 2015,
a resident of Flint, Lee Anne Walters,
concerned about her children’s reac-
tion to the tap water, insisted that the
city test for lead in the water in her
home.1–6 Analysis of water samples from
Walters’s home revealed levels of lead
of 104 ppb.1–6 The Lead and Copper
Rule under the National Drinking Wa-
ter Standards defines the “action level”
for lead as 15 ppb.31,32 This rule requires
water treatment systems to monitor lev-
els of lead and copper at the customers’

taps. If more than 10% of these water
samples have levels of lead that exceed
the 15-ppb action level, the system must
implement lead treatment protocols.31,32
In spite of the results of the lead levels
in water samples collected at the Uni-
versity of Michigan–Flint and Walters’s
home, the city did not take these results
as an indication of a possible systemic
issue with the drinking water treated
at the FWSC. In February, the federal
EPA asked the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality (MDEQ) about
the procedures used for the treatment
of the water from Flint River. The reply
This photograph, taken in a hospital in Flint, Michigan, on
October 16, 2015, shows the brown discoloration of tap water
treated
by the FWSC.
Im
ag
e
co
ur
te
sy
o
f F
lin

tW
at
er
S
tu
dy
.o
rg
VOLUME 60 NUMBER 1
from MDEQ was that the water was be-
ing treated according to regulations and
that the FWSC was using an “optimized
corrosion plan.”1,7
With growing concerns, Walters
contacted Miguel Del Toral, an EPA
employee. Del Toral put Walters in
touch with Marc Edwards, a professor
of civil and environmental engineering
at Virginia Tech. Edwards is an expert
on drinking-water systems and was the
person who investigated the cause of
lead in the drinking water in Washing-
ton, D.C.33,34 On hearing from Walters,
Edwards launched a systematic analysis
of the lead levels in homes in Flint and
worked with the community to establish
credible, scientific evidence of the scale

of the water contamination. Along with
his research group, Edwards established
a website with data and information on
what was unfolding in Flint.35 At the
same time, Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pe-
diatrician at the Hurley Medical Center
in Flint, published a paper that demon-
strated an increase in blood lead levels
in children in Flint compared to chil-
dren in neighboring areas that did not
receive water from the FWSC.36 Further,
the increase in blood lead levels was co-
incident with the switch to water from
FWSC. After hearing about lead levels
in the drinking water, Del Toral identi-
fied a grave concern—the Flint system
was not using anticorrosion agents,
contradicting earlier statements by the
MDEQ.37 The Lead and Copper Rule
states that for systems serving more
than 50,000 residents, a corrosion treat-
ment plan is required.31,32 Further, since
Flint has lead service lines, a corrosion
treatment plan is crucial.
In addition to the unsafe levels of
lead present in the drinking water, other
evidence also pointed to concerns about
the water quality delivered by the FWSC.
As early as October 2014 the General
Motors plant in Flint had opted out of
the FWSC system because the water was
corroding metal parts.38 There was also
an increase in the number of legionel-

losis cases coincident with the switch to
the FWSC.1–7,39
When the results of Edwards’s studies
were released, the MDEQ initially dis-
puted them.1 The MDEQ did conduct
lead assessments in homes as mandated
by the SDWA, but it appears that these
analyses may have been incorrectly car-
ried out.40,41 The lead reports released
by the MDEQ on July 28, 2015, and
August 20, 2015, reveal that insufficient
samples were collected.40 Further, the
August report states that two samples
were removed from the analysis, as the
collections of these samples did not fol-
low protocols.41 As a result, the MDEQ
reported that the levels of lead in the
samples collected did meet the require-
Systematic analysis of water samples collected from residences
in Flint. This analysis was conducted by Marc Edwards and his
research group
at Virginia Tech.
Im
ag
e
co
ur
te
sy
o

f F
lin
tW
at
er
S
tu
dy
.o
rg
ments of the National Drinking Water
Standards.
In October 2015, after state gov-
ernment epidemiologists confirmed
Hanna-Attisha’s measurements indi-
cating increased blood lead levels in
children who drank water from the
FWSC, Governor Snyder of Michigan
responded.1–6 On October 16, 2015,
the city of Flint was reconnected to the
DWSC.1–6 More than a year had passed
since the switch—a switch that was in-
tended to save money resulted in the
residents of Flint paying dearly and, due

to the lead poisoning of the children,
potentially intergenerationally.36
On October 21, 2015, Governor
Snyder appointed an independent task
force to investigate the Flint water cri-
sis. The Flint Water Advisory Task Force
released its findings in March 2016.42
Among the conclusions were:
(i) recognition of the severe misman-
agement of the switch of water sys-
tems by the Flint Public Works and
the FWSC;
(ii) the dangers of reliance on deci-
sions made purely on financial is-
sues and by people without neces-
sary expertise;
(iii) failure of the government in partic-
ular the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality (MDEQ)
and the Michigan Department of
Health and Human Services (MD-
HHS);
(iv) the Governor’s office as being the
ultimate office of accountability
and undue reliance on informa-
tion from the MDEQ and MDHHS
when the residents’ complaints and
concerns should have suggested
otherwise;
(v) the failure of the U.S. EPA for not

being more aggressive in exercis-
ing its authority in intervening to
ensure the safety and health of the
residents of Flint; and
(vi) “The Flint water crisis is a clear
case of environmental injustice.”
The conclusion that this crisis was a “case
of environmental injustice” has been
raised by others as well43,44,45,46,47 and cer-
tainly raises the question of whether res-
idents in a wealthier city with a different
demographic would have encountered
the relentless refusal by city and state
officials to address what was clearly a
failing water system, or whether people
without the necessary expertise would
have been employed to manage the city’s
drinking-water system. In February
2017, the Michigan Civils Rights Com-
mission issued a report titled “The Flint
Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through
the Lens of Flint.”48 A conclusion of this
commission is that “deeply embedded
institutional, systemic and historical
racism” was indirectly responsible for
the drinking-water crisis in Flint. The
report raises larger, complex questions
of what led to a city like Flint to become
bankrupt in the first place, which then
ultimately led to the city’s “cost-saving
measures” in switching the drinking-
water supply.

With city and state officials ignor-
ing them, residents of Flint had to take
matters into their hands. After all, they
and their families were being effectively
“poisoned.” Residents like Walters and
community organizations were persis-
tent in raising awareness of what was
happening. The support they received
from scientists and medical profession-
als like Del Toral, Hanna-Attisha, and
Edwards and his research group are
exemplars of science in support of soci-
ety. While the data on lead levels in the
water and children’s blood were ignored
by city and state officials for too long a
period, the consistent citizen pressure
along with the data made the news and
finally could not be ignored by officials.
Absent the active citizen groups and
support from the scientific and medi-
cal communities, it has to be asked how
much longer the situation in Flint would
have continued. Unfortunately, as con-
cluded by the task force, even the federal
agency, the EPA, failed to exercise the
authority it had under the SDWA.
In January 2017, the Michigan DEQ
announced that analysis of water sam-
ples collected from residences in Flint
revealed that the levels of lead were be-
low the action level.49 While this is an
improvement, it was still recommended
that people not drink the tap water.

A Retrospective Analysis of
the Flint Water Crisis
A retrospective analysis of the deci-
sions and actions that resulted in the
contamination of the drinking water
delivered to the residents of Flint clearly
highlights the failures of the FWSC.7 The
Collecting water samples from a residence in Flint, Michigan.
Im
ag
e
co
ur
te
sy
o
f F
lin
tW
at
er
S
tu
dy
.o

rg
VOLUME 60 NUMBER 1
data analyzed in the study were gathered
from monthly operating reports of the
FWSC, reports from the engineering
company that assessed the needs for
the upgrades as well as implementing
them, and water quality reports for the
city of Flint. An immediate conclusion
of this analysis is that the plant was not
ready in April 2014 when it first began
the delivery of treated water to the city.
Records show insufficient amounts of
chemicals essential for treating water,
control meters not operational, moni-
tors to measure residual chlorine in the
water that leaves the plant that were not
operational, and delays in starting chlo-
rination, which disinfects the water.
The appearance in May 2014 of the
brown discoloration in the water should
have been a cause of immediate con-
cern. The brown color is due to iron
leaching from pipes and forming iron
oxide; that is, rust. This brown discolor-
ation should have been a warning to the
FWSC to check the “corrosivity” of the
water. Corrosivity of water is a measure
of the tendency of water to dissolve met-

als like iron, lead and copper. The de-
gree of corrosivity is influenced by fac-
tors such as the pH of the water and the
presence of dissolved ions such as chlo-
ride. Corrosivity is particularly danger-
ous when a city has lead service lines,
which is the case in Flint, and when
homes have lead lines and fixtures. A re-
quirement under the Lead and Copper
Rule is for treatment plants to add phos-
phate to the water. Phosphate serves as
an “anticorrosion” agent by forming a
protective film that prevents leaching
of metals such as iron, lead, and copper
from pipes.4,7 Treatment protocols must
also include monitoring of key param-
eters that influence corrosivity.
The water from DWSD was treated
with phosphate; the water from the
Flint River was not. Since the switch
to the Flint River was intended to be
a temporary solution, the MDEQ ad-
vised the FWSC to not use the anti-
corrosion treatment at the start, but to
“wait and watch” the water quality over
two 6-month periods and then assess
the necessity for this treatment pro-
tocol.7 The MDEQ assumed that the
protective layer formed in the service
lines over the years Flint received water
from DWSD would not be affected and
would last over the time that the Flint
River was used.4,7 This is a dangerous
assumption, particularly when key wa-

ter quality parameters, discussed in the
following, were not monitored by the
FWSC.
The retrospective analysis revealed
that parameters used to measure corro-
sivity—the chloride to sulfate mass ratio
(CSMR) and the Larson–Skold index—
indicated that the water from the Flint
Even as early as the 1960s it was clear that the quality of the
water in the Flint River was being compromised by discharges
from industries
and the municipality and runoff from streets.
Im
ag
e
co
ur
te
sy
o
f F
lin
tW
at
er
S

tu
dy
.o
rg
River is very corrosive and hence will
leach metals from pipes. Quoting from
this study:
The high values of the CSMR and
Larson–Skold indexes of water en-
tering the Flint distribution system
should have raised serious concerns
about the possibility of corrosion,
especially given prior experience by
water utilities. For example, in Co-
lumbus, Ohio, the 90th percentile
lead levels in the water increased
by almost 360% after a change in
coagulant from alum to ferric chlo-
ride, which resulted in an increase
in the CSMR by up to 170%.7
The Flint water treatment plan in fact
did use ferric chloride as a coagulant
(which is used in treatment of drink-
ing water to precipitate suspended par-
ticles, such as soil). According to the
retrospective analysis, the values of the
CSMR and Larson–Skold indices for the

Flint River were in the “serious concern”
category. Further, the paper concludes:
Journalistic reports of the Flint
disaster have often stated that the
failure to add phosphate was the
primary cause of the lead corro-
sion problem. However, it should
be recognized that the CSMR of
the treated Flint River water was
so high that, even with the addi-
tion of phosphate, the water may
have been so corrosive that lead
levels in the system might have still
exceeded the action level. The fail-
ure to recognize the corrosivity of
the water and to add a corrosion
inhibitor had devastating effects.7
The presence of THMs was also a re-
sult of improper monitoring of key
parameters. As early as May 2014, the
FWSC recorded levels of TTHMs that
exceeded the maximum level permitted
by the SDWA. THMs are “disinfection
by-products” that form when chlorina-
tion is used to disinfect the water. THMs
form when the chemicals used for chlo-
rination react with dissolved organic
compounds—through side reactions of
disinfection.30 While disinfection is an
essential step in treatment of drinking
water, if chlorination is the method, then
levels of dissolved organic matter must
be monitored. If dissolved organic com-

pounds are present, a filtration method
that removes these compounds must be
used before the chlorination step. Once
the FWSC recognized that the levels of
TTHMs were above permitted levels,
filters were retroactively added to the
water treatment system to lower the lev-
els of dissolved organic compounds and
prevent the production of THMs. It was
only in August 2015 that this retrofit-
ting was finally successful in lowering
TTHMs levels below the regulated level.
Two key conclusions of the retro-
spective analysis are:7
Without any treatability studies
on which to determine chemical
dosages until late August 2015, it
appears that plant personnel were
left to attempt to address the pleth-
ora of complex water quality issues
and complaints by trial and error.
Significant changes were made to
chemical dosages, and the reasons
for these changes were often not
apparent.
Since the Flint plant had not been
fully operational in almost 50
years, was understaffed, and some
of the staff were undertrained, it is
not surprising that it was difficult
to achieve effective treatment.
This retrospective study emphasizes the

importance of understanding the scien-
tific and technical complexities inher-
ent in drinking-water treatments and in
implementing and enforcing effective
procedures in ensuring that the water
that leaves the plant is safe. This study
highlights that water management is not
easy nor should it be taken for granted,
and a key reason for this is the funda-
mental chemistry of water.
The Role of Safe Drinking
Water in Social and Economic
Development
The National Academy of Engineer-
ing ranked Water Supply and Distri-
bution as fourth on a list of the top 20
engineering feats of the 20th century
(electrification, the automobile, and the
airplane were numbers 1, 2, and 3, re-
spectively).50,51 The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) also
heralds drinking water treatment as one
of the 10 greatest achievements in the
20th century, as indicated in the follow-
ing quote:52
In 1900, the occurrence of typhoid
fever in the United States was ap-
proximately 100 cases per 100,000
people. By 1920, it had decreased
to 33.8 cases per 100,000 people. In
2006, it had decreased to 0.1 cases
per 100,000 people (only 353 cases)

with approximately 75% occurring
among international travelers. Ty-
phoid fever decreased rapidly in
cities from Baltimore to Chicago as
water disinfection and treatment
was instituted. This decrease in ill-
ness is credited to the implementa-
tion of drinking water disinfection
and treatment, improving the qual-
ity of source water, and improve-
ments in sanitation and hygiene.
The substantial investments in the
United States in the 20th century to
support infrastructure, scientific and
engineering research, and establish-
ment of agencies such as the EPA has
allowed its citizens access to safe drink-
ing water, resulting in significant social
and economic benefits. According to a
study by Cutler and Miller,53 introduc-
tion of filtration and chlorination in
water treatment in the United States in
the early 1900s accounted for a decline
of total mortality rates by 43%, a decline
of 62% in child mortality rates, and 74%
decline in infant mortality rates. Due to
the health improvements and reduction
in mortality, Cutler and Miller estimate
a return of investment of 23 times, dem-
onstrating the significant positive im-
pact of safe drinking water on human
and economic development.53
Globally, significant strides have
been made through the UN Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) in increas-
ing access to safe water.54 As a result of
the MDGs, about 90% of the world’s
VOLUME 60 NUMBER 1
population now has access to safe water
sources.55 The strides made in increas-
ing the number of people with access to
safe water will positively impact com-
munities’ health and economic devel-
opment, saving lives from waterborne
diseases and saving time spent in col-
lecting of water, which limits access to
education and employment, particularly
for women and girls, who do the bulk of
the collection worldwide.
These successes, however, cannot be
taken for granted.56 What residents of
Flint, Hoosick Falls, Charleston, mili-
tary bases, and so many others face is
the reality of water being easily contam-
inated. A recent report by the United
Nations Joint Monitoring Program
found that in 42 countries, 100% of the
population has access to safe water.57
The United States was not one of the 42
countries and was number 64 on the list
with 0.8% of the U.S. population lack-
ing access to safe water.57 While a small
percentage, this still translates to about
2.5 million people in the United States.

Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow al.docx

Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow al.docx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow al.docx

Similar to Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow al.docx (20)

More from madlynplamondon

More from madlynplamondon (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Do this assignment according to the directions below and fellow al.docx