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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
I'm Afraid of That Water: A Collaborative Ethnography of a West Virginia Water Crisis

I'm Afraid of That Water: A Collaborative Ethnography of a West Virginia Water Crisis

Lassiter, Luke Eric
Hoey, Brian A.
Campbell, Elizabeth

Paperback

AnthropologyEnvironmental Studies

ISBN10: 1949199371
ISBN13: 9781949199376
Publisher: West Virginia University Press
Published: Apr 1 2020
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
Weatherford Award Winner, Nonfiction

On January 9, 2014, residents across Charleston, West Virginia, awoke to an unusual licorice smell in the air and a similar taste in the public drinking water. That evening residents were informed the tap water in tens of thousands of homes, hundreds of businesses, and dozens of schools and hospitals--the water made available to as many as 300,000 citizens in a nine-county region--had been contaminated with a chemical used for cleaning crushed coal.

This book tells a particular set of stories about that chemical spill and its aftermath, an unfolding water crisis that would lead to months, even years, of fear and distrust. It is both oral history and collaborative ethnography, jointly conceptualized, researched, and written by people--more than fifty in all--across various positions in academia and local communities. I'm Afraid of That Water foregrounds the ongoing concerns of West Virginians (and people in comparable situations in places like Flint, Michigan) confronted by the problem of contamination, where thresholds for official safety may be crossed, but a genuine return to normality is elusive.

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