The Future of Flint

摘要

Detroit-based journalist Clark provides a compelling account of the still-unfolding Flint, Ml, water crisis. This work puts this complex environmental, public health, and human rights disaster in historical and political context. Moving fluidly back and forth between contemporary events and the long history of racialized inequity in Flint, Clark demonstrates how systemic disinvestment in public infrastructure threatens the health and safety of all citizens-and disproportionately puts the poor and people of color at risk. Readers are also introduced to individuals who collaborated to bring the story of Flint's contaminated water system to national attention: Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, Miguel Del Toral at the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Chicago, investigative journalist Curt Guyette, and environmental engineer Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech. Following their years-long search for answers and ongoing struggle for restitution, Clark reminds us how access to safe water became only a recent expectation in the United States and how fragile and dependent on enforcement that access remains. VERDICT A compelling must-read about issues of environmental activism, urban issues, systemic racism, and the accountability of the government to the people whom it serves.