Can you imagine turning on your kitchen faucet to discover a putrid, foul-smelling liquid pouring out, instead of clear, clean drinking water?
For months, this was what happened every time the residents of Flint, Michigan, turned on the tap. Many residents of Flint could purchase bottled water, but others, who had no choice but to drink and cook with it, quickly became ill, suffering a variety of serious ailments. Town officials refused to address the problem until a few residents decided to act.
In a new book, “Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation,” coming out in May, 2020 and published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books, co-authored with award-winning investigative reporter Candy J. Copper, SC&I’s Assistant Professor of Practice, Library and Information Science, Marc Aronson, tells the story of what happened to the residents and the water supply in Flint.
According to Amazon, the book tells the story of how beginning “in 2014, the residents of Flint, Michigan noticed that their water was a copper hue and smelled and tasted like sulfur. Some began using bottled water, but many of those who didn't started to experience rashes, hair loss, and a frightening, debilitating illness. Still, city officials claimed water tests were normal. It wasn't until nearly a year later when Flint resident Lee Ann Walters sent a water sample to the Environmental Protection Agency herself that the truth came out: the citizens of Flint where being poisoned by their own water supply. Based on the authors' original reporting and featuring government documents, and photographs, “Poisoned Water” is a riveting look at an alarming story of a government who turned away from its citizens--and the power of those same citizens who rose up to demand action.”
In a review by the School Library Journal, the reviewer summed up the book by writing, “VERDICT: This compulsively readable, must-buy narrative nonfiction serves as the ultimate antidote to civic complacence.”
More information about the Library and Information Science Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information is on the website.
