The complex and often alarming history of the Los Angeles city sewer system is captured for the first time in Anna Sklar’s Brown Acres: An Intimate History of the Los Angeles Sewers.

With more than fifty photographs, diagrams and maps, Brown Acres is the first historical narrative to detail any world-class city’s sewer system—complete with the relationship between headstrong politicians and the reformers who sought to “heal the bay” after a century of pollution and contamination. Brown Acres provides a unique look at the underground history of Los Angeles.