Reflecting on the Flint Water Crisis
“The national conversation has finally transitioned to where it is unacceptable to have lead service lines. It’s time to get them out. The original lead and copper rule was written in 1991. We could have started removing them then. We did not. If we had, we would not be talking about this right now. Unfortunately, we had to have the Flint Water Crisis to finally change the conversation.”
A conversation with Elin Betanzo (Safe Water Engineering LLC) about lead contamination in drinking water, the 2015 Flint Michigan Drinking Water Crisis, and water quality advocacy. Released October 23, 2026.
guests on the show
Elin Betanzo
Elin Warn Betanzo is president and founder of Safe Water Engineering LLC, a Detroit-based consulting firm working to improve access to safe drinking water through engineering and policy consulting. Elin is a Professional Engineer registered in Michigan, Maryland and Virginia, and a certified water system operator in Michigan. She has nearly 25 years of experience working on drinking water science, engineering, and policy issues. She worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water writing and implementing national drinking water regulations, for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission where she led water system master planning and hydraulic modeling, and for the Northeast-Midwest Institute leading their Safe Drinking Water Research and Policy Program. In August of 2015, Elin played a critical role in uncovering the Flint Water Crisis working with Dr. Mona Hanna, a Flint pediatrician, to conduct a study that discovered elevated lead levels in children living in Flint, Michigan. In addition, she contributed to the U.S. EPA's response to the Washington DC lead crisis in 2004 and supported the Benton Harbor community through technical analysis through their lead crisis starting in 2021. Elin’s data analysis and technical expertise were a driving force behind the new Michigan Filter First requirements for safer school drinking water. Elin continues to work on lead and drinking water policy at federal, state, and local levels.
TRANSCRIPT
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