Poisoned Water
How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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Publisher Description
Based on original reporting by a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an industry veteran, the first book for young adults about the Flint water crisis
In 2014, Flint, Michigan, was a cash-strapped city that had been built up, then abandoned by General Motors. As part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Then it got worse: children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Citizens of Flint protested that the water was dangerous. Despite what seemed so apparent from the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city's faucets, officials refused to listen. They treated the people of Flint as the problem, not the water, which was actually poisoning thousands.
Through interviews with residents and intensive research into legal records and news accounts, journalist Candy J. Cooper, assisted by writer-editor Marc Aronson, reveals the true story of Flint. Poisoned Water shows not just how the crisis unfolded in 2014, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, the beliefs and attitudes that fueled it, and how the people of Flint fought-and are still fighting-for clean water and healthy lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Effectively chronicling the Flint water crisis, investigative reporter Cooper and author Aronson (Rising Water) unearth the complex underpinnings of this tragedy. Placing later events in context with a history of Flint's rise from a trading village established in 1819 to a booming GM factory town in the 1930s, the authors relate how Flint became one of the most segregated cities in America through redlined neighborhood maps and white flight to the suburbs. This, in addition to factory closures and the 1970s economic downturn, changed the city's nickname from Vehicle City to Murdertown, U.S.A. The narrative gains momentum when it turns to the crisis itself, beginning with the city's decision to save money by building a new water pipeline to Lake Huron and using water from the heavily polluted Flint River in the meantime; the action left residents, may of whom fell below the poverty level, with astronomical water bills and foul, poisonous water. Cooper and Aronson skillfully characterize the cast of local activists, government bureaucrats, doctors, and victims who fought to unearth and reveal the truth about the poisoned water and its effects, including the various women in the forefront, dubbed "water warriors." Powerful photographs and primary source material round out the narrative. This hard-hitting journalistic account both explains the water crisis and cautions about how future catastrophes might occur. Ages 10 up.
