Tainted Tap
Flint's Journey from Crisis to Recovery
Katrinell M. Davis
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 04/2021
Pages: 280
Subject: Social Science, History, Science
Print ISBN: 9781469663326
eBook ISBN: 9781469662114
DESCRIPTION
After a cascade of failures left residents of Flint, Michigan,
without a reliable and affordable supply of safe drinking water,
citizens spent years demanding action from their city and state
officials. Complaints from the city's predominantly African
American residents were ignored until independent researchers
confirmed dangerously elevated blood lead levels among Flint
children and in the city's tap water. Despite a 2017 federal court
ruling in favor of Flint residents who had demanded mitigation,
those efforts have been incomplete at best.
Assessing the challenges that community groups faced in their attempts to advocate for improved living conditions, Tainted Tap offers a rich analysis of conditions and constraints that created the Flint water crisis. Katrinell Davis contextualizes the crisis in Flint's long and troubled history of delivering essential services, the consequences of regional water-management politics, and other forms of systemic neglect that impacted the working-class community's health and well-being. Using ethnographic and empirical evidence from a range of sources, Davis also sheds light on the forms of community action that have brought needed changes to this underserved community.
Assessing the challenges that community groups faced in their attempts to advocate for improved living conditions, Tainted Tap offers a rich analysis of conditions and constraints that created the Flint water crisis. Katrinell Davis contextualizes the crisis in Flint's long and troubled history of delivering essential services, the consequences of regional water-management politics, and other forms of systemic neglect that impacted the working-class community's health and well-being. Using ethnographic and empirical evidence from a range of sources, Davis also sheds light on the forms of community action that have brought needed changes to this underserved community.
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