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Environmental Justice in Anacostia Park
Anacostia Park is a 1200 acre park system adjacent to the Anacostia River, managed by the National Park Service. It is a greenspace that has and still does play an important role in the culture and community health of several predominantly Black neighborhoods in Southeast and Northeast D.C. Advocacy to support investments in the stewardship and infrastructural maintenance of Anacostia park has been a long-standing challenge.
MI Water, MI Future Transcript - Water Justice, Access and Affordability in Michigan
MI Water MI Future Townhall Series Water Justice: Access & Affordability in Michigan
June 1, 2020
Video Transcript
Townhall Video Link (Youtube)
Chat Transcript With Links (end of audio transcript)
Panelists
Congressman Dan Kildee (Michigan's 5th Congressional District)
Senator Stephanie Chang (Michigan State Senate District 1)
Sylvia Orduño (Advocate & Community Organizer, People's Water Board Coalition)
Moderator
Sean McBrearty, Clean Water Action Michigan Legislative and Political Director
Sean McBrearty 00:10
Welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. My name
Michigan’s Outdated and Dangerous Combined Sewer Systems
Many of Michigan’s urban and suburban areas expanded rapidly between the 1920s and the 1950s — an era with different priorities for water management. Many of Michigan’s water systems were originally built as combined systems, meaning the pipes carried both stormwater and wastewater. These systems simply discharged all water directly into local lakes, rivers, and streams, without treatment. Wastewater treatment centers were built later, and the combined sewer pipes were redirected there for the water to be processed before being released back into the water table. Starting in the mid-1950s
Protecting Michigan’s Waters: Infrastructure for the Future
Michigan is the Great Lakes state. As such, Michigan residents are acutely aware of our duty to protect the Great Lakes and our water resources for future generations. There are currently many threats to our water here in Michigan. Most of these threats have been looming for years, but action on them has been pushed off, as our legislature procrastinates and ignores the problems instead of taking the hard steps that action requires.
The Flint water crisis brought the dangers of lead infrastructure and poor oversight from the state to the surface and a city was poisoned as a result. Every year
Michigan’s Aging Septic Systems
E. coli is a major bacterial pollutant in Michigan’s water. While E. coli is commonly talked about in reference to combined sewer overflows and large-scale agricultural operations, there is another major source of E. coli in our water that every state in the country other than Michigan has worked to eliminate — leaking and failing septic systems.
Michigan is currently the only state that does not require regular inspections of septic systems, and the problem is only getting worse with time. Septic systems are generally found in rural areas where municipal sewer systems don’t exist, or in older