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A New Frontier for Pittsburgh’s Water
2025 Year in Review: Toxics in California
Pure Michigan: Where you can drink as much coal ash as you want
By Alicia Vignoe, Michigan Executive Assistant Intern
Lake Michigan
I spend every Fourth of July week in Ludington, Michigan at my aunt’s cottage right by Lake Michigan. The whole family goes up and we spend our days by the lake and nights by the bonfire. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that my beloved Lake Michigan was in trouble because of pollution from coal ash. I didn’t notice anything wrong. I never saw the water turning black and I’ve never become sick from swimming in it, so how bad could it really be? I do live in Pure Michigan, right? My past naivety is something that
MSU: Kick Coal Ash
Water as a Human Right
The Human Right to Water, passed by the legislature in 2012 and signed by Governor Brown, was a great policy idea with almost no teeth. Community members and advocates worked for years to gain recognition for water as a human right, with our first bill, AB 1242 (Ruskin, 2009) vetoed by then-Governor Schwarzenegger and its successor, AB 685 (Eng, 2012) taking the full 2-year session to pass. The legislation was short and to the point:
It is hereby declared to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for