Chock full of information and details on what actually happened in Flint, Michigan when the city decided to stop using Detroit water to avoid the high cost. It is very disheartening to read that fellow human beings really did not care that other humans were basically being poisoned from their water supply-it is also hard to believe that could happen. But, it did happen and the author of this book, Anna Clark, does a great job explaining the whole sad story from the lead poisonings to the legionnaires disease that spread after Flint started using Flint River water through their old water system. I had no past knowledge on what had happened to Flint other than people were getting sick from the water supply-this book was great in filling me in on pretty much the whole scandal. Poor people always get the shaft that is just the way it is, however, when it comes to water eventually the problems will even reach the rich. This is a societal issue-noone can live with out clean safe water.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read and review.

Anna Clark's "A Poisoned City" is such a well researched and damning account of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, reveals who is responsible, and what led to it. It truly is a sickening account of how poor decisions by “leadership” and greed can come together and affect children and families for something so basic as water. I have been following this crisis since Rachel Maddow brought it to our collective attention, and must say this book was hard to read at times. Not that it isn’t eloquently executed. It is. Not that it isn’t true. It is. Not that it isn’t fascinating. It is. It is that in the United States of America in 2018, children still don’t have safe water, and Washington doesn’t seem to care.

I will be recommending this to as many people as possible, and likely using it as a book club selection for a group I facilitate. The more people who are aware of the politics of water, the better. I can’t say enough positives about this book. I am just so sorry it had to be written.

A solid five stars.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for a pre-publication ebook in exchange for an honest review.

A woman who was a high school classmate posted on Facebook about her work distributing bottled water in Flint, Michigan through the American Red Cross. Day after day people came for a case of water. The had to make daily trips because they were only allowed one case a day. The people needed an I.D. to get the water. It was the middle of a brutal winter, and many of the people were elderly or disabled or had no cars. Church pastors came, hoping to get cases of water to deliver to their shut-ins who could not make it out.

Lori told me that the people were uninformed about the toxic water and how to be safe. Actually, the Red Cross workers didn't know what the Health Department standards would recommend. Could one bathe in the water? Use it to mix baby formula? Filters and water purifiers were distributed, but not everyone knew how to install or maintain them, and the filters only fit on certain kinds of faucets.

Setting up the warehouses and creating a system from scratch was 'chaotic,' 'hell'. Some warehouses were overstocked while others emptied quickly leaving people without water.

It was heartbreaking, Lori said.

Flint once had the highest per-capita incomes in the nation. GM founder and Flint mayor Charles Stewart Mott developed a renowned school system. The city boasted the Flint Symphony Orchestra and the Flint Institute of Arts.

My father-in-law grew up in Flint and worked for Fisher Body. His widowed mother found work at GM and participated in the Woman's Brigade during the Sit-Down Strike. His eldest son opened his professional offices in Flint and raised his family there.

When GM closed its auto plants over twenty thousand residents left. Businesses closed. The city tax base was gone and revenue sharing was sidelined to balance the state budget. An economic turndown and mortgage crisis devastated the country.

Still, Flint was Michigan's seventh largest city with 49,000 residents. The community was not down yet and neighborhood civic programs for change and betterment were led by the University of Michigan Flint, Habitat for Humanity, and church groups.

The state assigned an Emergency Manager to oversee Flint and solve its budget crisis. Buying treated water from Detroit Water and Sewerage was costly. It was decided to switch to the Karegnodi Water Authority, drawing water from Lake Huron, and process the water by reopening Flint's water treatment plant. Until the new source of water was in place they would draw water from the Flint River.

The state's environmental agency had warned that using Flint River water was a bad idea. The decision was based on cost-effectiveness. As the Detroit Free Press observed, the state had "voted for a business person" when they voted for Governor Snyder, the "bottom line" being his priority. "Governing a state as well as governing a nation is not like running a business. He and the people of Flint have found out the hard way."

Residents complained of bad smelling coffee-colored tap water, skin rashes, and illnesses. Children lost hair, suffered aches and pains. For eighteen months, the city, state and federal governments delayed action, claiming the water was safe.

Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes which hold one-fifth of the world's freshwater yet Flint residents were drinking tap water that was toxic.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had suffered staff and budget cuts although monitoring the largest number of community water systems in the country.

People came down with Legionnaire's disease for years but there was no public notice about the outbreak. Forty-six patients at McLaren Hospital in Flint became ill and ten died of the disease. Four years passed before a Wayne State University investigation traced the outbreak to the switch to Flint River water and corrosion in pipes.

Every governing authority had failed the people of Flint. Water quality tests were skewed to lessen the amount of lead found. Citizens with the highest amount of lead found their test results eliminated from the results.

In 2015 the State Integrity Report Card from the Center for Public Integrity ranked Michigan dead LAST. Snyder signed bills "that did more to conceal the actions of state government," including political donors. Journalism was undergoing deep cuts, with fewer local journalists employed--a loss of local watchdogs.

The Poisoned City puts the crisis in the context of the history of Flint, the development of water sources, and legislation for environmental protection. It tells the story of the grass-roots activists who demanded justice. And how the media brought the story to the public, beginning with Michigan Public Radio which first reported the problem to Rachel Maddow who brought it to national attention.

Liability for causing environmental hazards rarely punishes the polluter. In the case of Love Canal, the New York State neighborhood poisoned by Hooker Chemicals' leaking toxic waste storage, the courts held Hooker responsible for cleanups but not punitive damages for the harm the residents suffered. The law requires evidence of intent to cause harm.

In Flint, lawsuits were filed over the poisoned water, Legionella, damaged plumbing, lost property values and paying for water only fit, as one said, to flush toilets.

The devaluation of Flint, mostly poor and African American, was evident when the EPA made the decision not to provide financial aid for buying filters because then other cities would demand them and Flint was not "the kind of community we want to go out on a limb for."

Children were being poisoned by lead in the city water lines. Dr. Hanna-Attisha studied the records of children treated at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and discovered a rise in blood-lead levels in 27,000 children. There is no 'cure' for the damage from lead poisoning.

In 2016, Governor Snyder admitted, "Government failed you--federal, state, and local leaders--by breaking the trust you placed in us. I am sorry most of all that I let you down. You deserve better." High ranking Michigan officials have legal immunity.

A class-action lawsuit did settle a deal which included $87 million for Flint to locate and replace water lines by 2020 at no cost to the homeowners. Criminal investigations brought indictments of authorities who had falsified or buried information or obstructed investigations.

Before Flint, Washington, D.C. struggled with lead in their water. Another predominately African American community was allowed to be poisoned for years before the issue was addressed.

Two American cities have been proactive about removing lead water pipes, Madison, WS and Lansing, MI. Lansing had the advantage of a city-owned system, The Board of Water and Light, and was able to completely overhaul the system, removing all lead pipes. Mayor Virge Bernero said, "...the poor suffer the most...the rich can insulate themselves...they can move out...Though ultimately, when we have a complete and utter infrastructure failure...no one is safe."

Recently, the distribution of bottled water to Flint was ended. The water lead levels have been brought to standards. But the residents no longer trust the authorities to protect them.

Nestle', who draws Michigan spring water for $200 a year for resale will provide several months of water to Flint. Actors Will and Jaden Smith have been providing water to Flint.

Flint is not the only city with lead pipes. And I shudder to consider what lies ahead if we are not able to address the aging infrastructure of America.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was fascinating from start to finish. Extremely well researched and organized, it paints a perfect picture of exactly what contributed to the crisis.

The most telling part for me was that government offices were supplying themselves with a different water source while simultaneously telling the citizens of Flint that their water was safe, despite ample evidence it wasn’t. This was one of many stories that shocked me throughout the book.

Great book that recounts the story of the ongoing crisis, and offers solutions on how to fix it, both through policy and community intervention. Highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books for the advanced reader copy of this book. I recommend this well-researched and thoughtful investigation into the recent Flint, MI water crisis. Before reading this, I would have ascribed the Flint water fiasco mainly to government bureaucracy and ineptitude, but I now also see the systemic racism laid out by the author and wonder why I didn’t consider that factor before. It does seem it would have played out differentl and with a lot more interest if it had been a less marginalized community. Many parts of the book are shocking, but perhaps most disturbing is the kind of similar doomsday scenarios you can imagine playing out across the country, in so many cities. Definitely a worthwhile read.

What happened to take Flint, Michigan? This book answers the big questions surrounding the Flint Water Crisis.
The author sorted out all the details and explains clearly what happened. I appreciate all the research that went into this book to provide a clear explanation of what is going on with the in Flint.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

"The lack of attention spoke to the level of importance we ascribed 'those' people in Flint at the time, not that they didn't exist."

Anna Clark's "A Poisoned City" is a damning, thoughtful, and thorough account of the Flint water crisis, what led to it, and the systems (and people) that failed along the way. At times I found myself shaking my head as I read, dumbfounded by the poor decisions, lack of attention paid to the crisis, and biases demonstrated by leadership.

I plan on recommending this to as many people as possible, especially those ignorant to the situation in Flint or those looking to learn more. The book will leave you more informed, but not much more hopeful that history won't continue to repeat itself (as it already has time and again). The people of Flint still don't have safe drinking water and the distribution of free bottled water has ended. And so it goes....