num_pages: 320
description: The first full account of the Flint Michigan water scandal an American tragedy with new details from Anna Clark the award-winning Michigan journalist who has covered the story from its beginningsWhen the people of Flint Michigan turned on their faucets in April 2014 the water pouring out was poisoned with lead and other toxins. Through a series of disastrous decisions the state government had switched the citys water to a source that corroded Flints aging lead pipes. Complaints about the foul-smelling water were dismissed: the residents of Flinta largely poor African American city of about 100000 peoplewere not seen as credible even in matters of their own lives.It took 18 months of activism and a band of dogged outsiders to force the state to admit that the water was poisonous. But this was only after 12 people died and Flint's children suffered irreparable harm. The long battle for accountability and a humane response to this man-made disaster have only just begun.In the first full-length account of this epic failure The Poisoned City recounts the gripping story of Flints poisoned water through the people who caused it suffered from it and exposed it. It is a chronicle of one town but could also be about any American city all made precarious by the neglect of infrastructure and the erosion of democratic decision-making. Cities like Flint are set up to failand for the people who live and work in them the consequences may be mortal.A 2019 Library of Michigan Notable Books
language: English
title: The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy
publisher: Metropolitan Books