Green Bay Wisconsin Waterfront News & Great Lakes News (Page 1,523)

On the heels of Detroit, Michigan’s famous Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department shut off water to more than 120,000 residents over the course of three years, marking what is now considered the largest residential water shut off in United States history.

The utility cited $89 million in unpaid bills as their reason for the shut offs, but Kristy Meyer, campaign director at Water Equals Life (WEL) Coalition, says this decision put residents who were already struggling at risk for illness, psychological and social harm, and further economic suffering.

“People don't fully understand how a lack of access to water in your tap can impact individual lives and everybody else's lives, too,” says Meyer. “Nationally, as a result of water insecurity, there are 219,000 cases of waterborne illnesses and 71,000 cases of mental illness that cost our economy 68.7 million work hours and an estimated 610 lives [each year].”

To help address the impacts of water insecurity, the WEL Coalition was created by three founding organizations—We the People of Detroit, Freshwater Future, and the National Wildlife Federation—to advocate for water justice and affordability in Michigan and beyond.

Today, the WEL Coalition is comprised of 26 local, state, regional, and national partner organizations working together to advocate for policies that address water affordability for all Michigan residents. WEL members also address public health concerns, infrastructure needs, climate change, and other compounding issues that contribute to the water crisis. These people-centric elements of Great Lakes restoration work are often underprioritized but make up a vital aspect of well-being for communities throughout the region.

“This is not just an individual crisis, this is all of our crisis,” says Meyer. “We need to be able to solve this problem collectively together. Everyone should have clean, safe water. No exceptions.”

Since 1977, federal investment in water has declined from 63% of capital spending to just 9% in 2017. With less federal support, the burden of water infrastructure upgrades has increasingly been placed on local ratepayers in the form of skyrocketing utility bills.

Tiana Starks, chair of the communications committee for the WEL Coalition and director of communications at We the People of Detroit, explains that water costs in Michigan have risen to consume as much as 25% of residents’ disposable household income in some areas, including Detroit.

“Water insecurity is not just something that impacts people in Detroit and in urban areas. People all across the state of Michigan are being impacted by the increase in water costs,” she says. “The cost of water has gone up over 188% over the last 10 years in Michigan, and in some places that can be as much as 320%.”

During the first wave of mass water shut offs in Detroit in 2014, several founding members of the WEL Coalition were active in grassroots efforts to distribute bottled water to residents. There, they witnessed the effect of these rising costs firsthand.

“When they were distributing water, they would go through the neighborhoods and see water hoses connecting from one family's home to another to try and help,” says Starks. “It was like a system.”

When bottled water was accessible, families often rationed the supplies. First, Starks explains, a family might use some of the water to brush their teeth in the morning. Remaining water would then be used to cook a meal before that same water was recycled to wash dishes. Finally, the dirty dishwater would be used to flush the toilet, ridding the home of waste that had accumulated throughout the day.

The inability to maintain personal or household hygiene practices has a tangible impact on long-term public health. Studies conducted by We the People of Detroit’s Community Research Collective found that the probability of contracting communicable diseases increases dramatically in communities impacted by water shut offs.

“We learned that if you live on a block where one house is shut off from water, you are 1.5 times more likely to get a waterborne illness,” says Starks.

Lack of access to water also increases the likelihood that children will not attend school and that adults will be unable to maintain work, further exacerbating their inability to afford the rising cost of water. According to Michigan law, families may face losing their children if the home is without water for three days. If bills are unpaid long enough, collection agencies may even place liens on resident’s homes.

“It’s really quite devastating what people have to go through,” says Starks. “There is a direct impact on mothers and families when people don't have water in the state of Michigan.”

To combat these impacts, the WEL Coalition hopes to create a statewide water affordability program through the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services. The plan will have four primary goals: to implement a tiered water rate based on household income and the federal poverty line, to lower the cost of water bills, to limit water shut offs, and to provide a path to debt forgiveness.

To pave the road, Meyer says the coalition is working to educate public health officials, legislators, activists, and other interested parties on the difference between water affordability and water assistance. She defines assistance as short-term funding that helps people get back on their feet, whereas affordability is “about permanently lowering water rates.”

Over the course of the last decade, several city-based programs have been introduced across the Great Lakes states to combat rising water rates. The City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, launched its Tiered Assistance Program (TAP) in 2017. In response to local water shut offs, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department followed suit with its income-based Lifeline Plan in 2022. By evaluating the success of these existing programs, the WEL Coalition can learn more about what works well and what can be improved upon for a statewide affordability plan.

With climate change, increased pollutants like PFAS, and Michigan’s approximately $19 billion need for water infrastructure upgrades, Meyer acknowledges that utility companies are facing greater challenges than ever to provide residents with affordable clean water.

“If there is a true water affordability program, utilities win, as well,” she says. “That's because there is a large amount of people that can't pay their water bill right now, so water utilities aren't getting that money, no matter what.”

She looks to TAP as an example of how water affordability programs can benefit all parties.

“In Philadelphia, people in the TAP program are able to pay their bills,” she says. “The Philadelphia Water Department netted nearly $5 million from people they hadn't in the past because they had a water affordability program in place.”

In the meantime, the WEL Coalition plans to continue its outreach efforts and promote its Water Affordability Pledge, which contains nine tenets in support of clean, affordable water. Meyer says both individuals and entities are welcome to sign.

“If you get to the very core of it, we're made up of 60% water,” she adds. “Water is the very foundation of all of our lives.”

Visit welcoalition.org.

Original Article

Latest Updates - Healthy Lakes

Latest Updates - Healthy Lakes

https://www.healthylakes.org/latest-updates/tackling-michigans-water-crisis

Lindsey Bacigal

Located in Petoskey, Michigan, just three miles in from Lake Michigan, Coveyou Scenic Farm Market grows a full line of organic vegetables, says fifth-generation farmer David Coveyou.

Once harvested, the vegetables are sold at the on-site market alongside fruits, jams, sauces, baked goods, eggs, meat, and cheeses from more than 120 Michigan vendors. The farm also distributes produce to local schools, restaurants, retail stores, and other community institutions.

“It's wonderful food,” says Coveyou, who explains that the vegetables for sale in the market are often harvested that same day. “When people start realizing that we can eat and enjoy so many things that are made in northern Michigan, they kind of become passionate about eating local. It's hard to go back to off-the-shelf national brands when you've tasted something that's more like this mom-and-pop artisan food.”

The 330-acre farm and market, which overlooks inland Walloon Lake, focuses on environmentally sustainable farming practices using solar power, geothermal cooling, collected rainwater, underground drip irrigation, and natural fertilizers, says Coveyou.

“I'm growing a lot closer to the way my great grandfather grew before the conventional trends of the last generation, where everything is synthetic,” he says. “It allows us to grow better quality produce—healthier produce—but also to preserve and conserve our land. Everything we're using is found in nature.”

Together, Coveyou and his wife and four children, along with a team of 12 employees, grow their produce using Michigan-made Dairy Doo sustainable fertilizers. Compared to synthetic fertilizers, which are created using an industrial process that relies heavily on natural gases, these organic fertilizers are far healthier for the planet.

Comprised of naturally occurring ingredients like manure, compost, rocks, shells, and bones, organic fertilizers help safeguard the soil and nearby watersheds by reducing excess nutrient runoff—a common problem with synthetic fertilizers. Upon application, organic fertilizers are mixed with the dirt, helping to improve soil quality over time. Synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, are mixed with water and sprayed onto crops, providing a short-term burst of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.

“All these synthetic, water-soluble fertilizers are actually leeching into our water systems,” says Coveyou. “When they dissolve in water, whether it's from rain or your sprinklers, they're getting into our sandy soils, into the lakes, and going further down into the well systems.”

In the United States, the agriculture industry applies an estimated four million tons of phosphorus and 12 million tons of nitrogen to crops each year, making agriculture the largest nationwide contributor to harmful nutrient runoff into our waterways. Once these elements are introduced to the watershed, they pollute drinking water—particularly for the more than 13 million U.S. households that rely on well water—and contribute to harmful algal blooms that produce toxins and threaten the health of humans and wildlife.

These elements are also harmful when used as lawn fertilizers for residential properties, says Coveyou, further contributing to poor soil and water quality in areas that are already oversaturated. Soil testing, which is often provided for free by universities and nonprofit organizations, can offer insight into the existing nutrient content of the soil to determine if lawn treatments are necessary prior to application.

“Once [a synthetic fertilizer] dissolves in the water and gets into the water table, it does your lawn no good,” says Coveyou. “If your lawn guy has to come back more than three times a year, you’re basically washing a ton of it into the water stream.”

Although investing in a native plant lawn is the most environmentally friendly alternative to traditional grass lawns, homeowners that aren’t ready to take that plunge should explore organic fertilizers as a more responsible method of fertilizing their lawns.

“There are very good lawn services that use organic fertilizers,” Coveyou suggests. “It doesn’t matter where you are, but especially if you have a lakefront home. It’s the low hanging fruit of what we can do in our community to make it better.”

In addition to using sustainable fertilizers, Coveyou Scenic Farm Market strives for energy efficiency and water conservation. Twice recognized by the Michigan Governor’s Energy Excellence Award Committee, the farm is powered via a solar array and uses geothermal heating and cooling.

Coveyou also collects rainwater from the roof of a 5,000-square-foot greenhouse, which is stored in a 13,000-gallon tank and used for watering crops. Each year, Coveyou and his team install more than 40 miles of ground-level drip irrigation tubing that pull from both the rainwater and a spring-fed pond on the property. Coveyou says this water is warmer and higher in mineral content than water sourced from deeper in the watershed, both qualities that help crops thrive.

Furthermore, this method helps conserve water, a resource that is often overburdened by the agricultural industry, which accounts for an estimated 80% of annual U.S. water consumption.

“Water gets to our produce in the most efficient way,” Coveyou says. “Everything is in the ground to conserve water.”

As Coveyou Scenic Farm Market celebrates its 150th year in 2024, Coveyou is reflecting on the fact that, just 30 years ago, the future of his family’s 330-acre property was uncertain.

“When I was growing up, our farm was all cereal grains—oats, wheat, barley, buckwheat—that we’d sell to all these other farmers in the area,” he recalls. “All those other farmers, their farms are basically grassy fields we drive by now in northern Michigan. It’s hard to believe in just over 30 years how many of these farms have gone out of business.”

When Coveyou and his parents made the decision to convert to organic vegetable farming 25 years ago, it was before what he calls “the local food craze,” and the family wasn’t sure how it would be received.

“This was the quintessential problem,” says Coveyou. “How do you make a farm in northern Michigan economically viable? We’ve got a really special farm here in a special location, and I didn’t want it going out on my watch.”

Since leaning into its niche, Coveyou Scenic Farm Market has seen annual growth and become a regional leader in organic farming and sustainability. As the farm continues to grow, Coveyou hopes to spread the word to other farmers on how to create a similar model.

“It’s continuous change, continuous evolution, continuous growth,” he says. “Without it, we really would be just like our neighbors, just a bunch of grassy fields … I feel so blessed and fortunate that we’re able to play a key role in our community and to have such great community support.”

Visit coveyouscenicfarm.com.

Coveyou Scenic Farm Market is also part of the Great Lakes Business Network, bringing together business owners who are committed to the protection of the Great Lakes. Learn more at glbusinessnetwork.com

Original Article

Latest Updates - Healthy Lakes

Latest Updates - Healthy Lakes

https://www.healthylakes.org/latest-updates/good-for-the-water-and-good-for-the-land-growing-organic-produce-helped-this-fifth-generation-farm-thrive

Lindsey Bacigal