The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy Free Audiobook Download by Anna Clark

Flint, Michigan is a city of 100,000 people that was once the proud center of the American automobile industry and one of the country's wealthiest cities. When General Motors closed its local factory in 1977, Flint started to lose jobs and residents. Then in April 2014, Flint's municipal water source was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River as the city was under contract with Detroit Water Systems. The untreated river water contained toxic levels of lead, bacteria, and other pollutants.

The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy is a detailed account of the devastation wrought by lead poisoning on the people of Flint, Michigan. The book connects the dots among local and national authorities to show how one city's suffering was largely caused by politics and wealth, as much as an aging infrastructure. Anna Clark explores how problems with water are now widely seen as integral to urban life in America, where risk is privatized while profit is socialized.

Anna Clark tells the story of how a city"s water supply was poisoned, exposing deep problems in American society.

Written in deep and nuanced detail, this is the definitive account of what went wrong with the city’s water system and how the state failed to protect its people.

Flint’s children have suffered irreversible damage. They might be shorter for the rest of their lives, or they might not reach their full potential intellectually. They might be less healthy than they would have been if they’d had a safe water supply all along, and they might develop more chronic illnesses as adults.

"Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by NPR and The New York Times, The Poisoned City is a revelatory, heartbreaking account of how Flint's tragic water crisis has become a symbol for all that is wrong with America's approach to urban areas."