Water Statement to Michigan Rep Chang

MWRO/WATER STATEMENT

To: Rep. Stephanie Chang

From: Maureen D Taylor, MSW

Re: Status Report on Accessibility


Rep. Chang;

As the State Chairperson of the MI Welfare Rights Organization, know that we are humbled to present these words that outline our collective feelings on this sensitive and critical issue as thousands of residential customers in Detroit face new rounds of water shutoffs.

I am reminded that in the Lansing State Capitol, stands a bronze statue of a seven-year old Helen Keller, blind at birth, memorializing the moment of her historical enlightenment.  Her teacher, Ann Sullivan, and this story made famous in the Oscar winning movie, “The Miracle Worker” was trying to convey the essence of what words meant to a child born without hearing or sight. The bronze statue captures that moment as Helen put her hands under the pump while her teacher, Ms. Sullivan, used hand-to-hand sign language and spelled out the word…  W-A-T-E-R…to her.  Helen finally understood the relationship between the word and what that word represented.

June 1st marks the day the great Helen Keller passed away, so it is ironic that in June of this year, we are celebrating not an age of enlightenment, but instead we are a witness to a period of human darkness that will stain this State for years.

It is not necessary to recant the economic climate that residents of Michigan have been struggling through since the recession of 2005 and beyond.  Entire cities and communities scattered across the State continue to reel from the loss of financial foundations built by so many years of fruitful employment. In the US Census of 2010, it was reported that MI was the only state to have loss significant population.  In Detroit, we know this fact all too well, as do all elected officials that purport to represent the residents.

Over one million residents from just Detroit have left this City leaving us with just under 800,000 to fill the void created by such a dramatic population decline.  Factories that were the back-bone of financial stability for millions of families have been slowly phased out. Computers are taking the place of the American working class, and that trend is best seen here in Detroit and in surrounding factory-based counties. Technology that used to enhance labor, today has replaced labor leaving in its wake the skeleton of what was in neighborhoods all over Wayne County. 

We are slipping into the dark-side, shoved into this draconian condition marked by a false and divisive narrative, which covertly suggests Detroiters have resources but because of our criminal leanings, we don’t want to pay water bills. Poverty is being criminalized as the poor are held responsible for not having enough money to pay rising utility costs.  The economics of the low-income family profile is completely overlooked. Consequently, we learn nothing from past
civil uprisings, or the current uprisings in Cities across the country.    

Our calls for relief are mostly ignored. Our tears go unnoticed, and our prayers have been unanswered. We have hope, and try to hold on, but this latest assault against the most vulnerable is galvanizing a response that know one here wants to anticipate.

Welfare Rights and the Peoples Water Board have fought tooth and nail over these last 16 months, in every way possible to convince the City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. that the path they had chosen was both wrong and not cost-effective. We have tirelessly offered solution after solution to this crisis demanding that a Water Affordability Plan be instituted, even if it is implemented at first as a pilot project to be tested.  Always the answer is “NO”, so we find ourselves again in this painful gap of pending defiance and civil unrest as we are unable to do anything but stop this by any means necessary.

We urge our elected officials to review this crisis and that they put the issue of mass water shutoffs at the top of the list as the deadline for continued tolerance approaches.  As MWRO is the recognized union for low-income families, we cannot turn from this struggle.  If our colleagues from the UNITED NATIONS are correct in that the US of America cannot deprive low-income populations of access to clean water and sanitation, we will then pursue the path of litigation as we seek to file suit against this violation of international law.

We will not stop there.  We will press you to create legislation that outlaws such practices now and forever.  We will not stop there.  We will demonstrate, we will picket, we will agitate, we will interfere with business as usual everywhere we can in an effort to erase forever the notion that water is a commodity to be bought and sold.  Access to water is a human right, and must always be held as a common trust never to be denied because people are too poor.  Shame on those who created this concept, and shame on us if we allow this “cancer” to exist without an all out battle against it.

Maureen D Taylor
State Chairperson

MWRO Statement on UN visit to Detroit to investigate massive water shutoffs--Part 1

This is the first of a two-part statement from MWRO on the United Nations visit to Detroit by two Special Rapporteurs on Detroit water shutoffs.

On Oct. 20th, 2014, United Nations representatives Catarina de Albuquerque and Leilani Farha met with Mayor Mike Duggan and part of his staff to discuss the recent mass water shutoffs plaguing Detroit.

U.N. Special Rapporteurs. Photo credit: theguardian.com

The meeting was very frank and at times contentious with the Special Rapporteurs (SR) asking questions based on citizen/resident reports they had received from what they refer to as “civil society” organizations and direct visits to residential homes. The premise of the meeting was itself historic in that this was a session to discuss best practices, shared by the SRs, relative to how decreasing revenues might impact water access, distribution and sanitation specifically in low-income households. The two special investigators have amassed a myriad of expertise over the years after visiting many countries that have faced dwindling economies and transient populations.

Amid a flurry of “denials” and veiled attempts to discredit the intention(s) of these two specialists, the SRs continued to press for answers about recent water shutoffs. The session went back and forth until Mayor Duggan stepped up and suggested he would be interested in receiving detailed information about any current residents without water. The Mayor placed a call at the suggestion of the MWRO rep to the phone center and was able to get right through to someone without a long wait. This single act proved the City’s case that new practices are being put in place to address resident complaints — the problem is that these procedures aren’t reaching the poorest and most vulnerable residents. Long waits on the phone to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. have been a frequent complaint and we hope, at least in this instance, progress is being made. In the end, what was suggested is that specific account information would be needed to examine any claims of denied water and the City would look into each case that was submitted.

Detroit Mayor Duggan with Alexis Wiley. Photo credit: clickondetroit.com

Since that historic session, several things have occurred. The City has issued statements that paint the Special Rapporteur’s visit as “nothing but a show.” One city employee, Alexis Wiley, the Mayor’s chief of staff, labeled their initial report as “sad” suggesting they were following a separate agenda that did not reflect the truth about water shutoffs in Detroit. Another City employee suggested that information gathered by talking with a few residents did not rise to actual truth, and that only through talks with the City were facts able to be put forward. Residential interpretations were not credible, in other words, and were not to be validated. There are none so blind than those who refuse to see!

In 2005, 2006, and 2007 — the Water Affordability Plan was submitted to the DWSD after is was tweaked and then accepted by the City Council and the then Mayor. Always, it is said there are legal reasons why this wonderfully crafted document can’t be implemented. And always when we ask, “Why not?” no credible answers are shared. The corporate interests that have lined up in great anticipation of receiving mega-infusions of cash is the logical place to search for the financial support needed to help shore up the City. Revenue sharing, unpaid commercial and corporate water accounts, so many places to look for untapped resources yet the then Emergency Manager’s only goal, it appears, was to inflict economic and physical pain on the most marginalized, most vulnerable, the poorest.

Over and over again, the City has suggested that those unable to find resources to help prevent shutoff or restore water already shut off were not truthful or that they were too dumb to find simple information. The old, tired, “people want free water” message was dragged out, a phrase that is repeated even though no one ever asked for that. It was revealed that the City has always practiced water shutoffs, and that was an established practice never before challenged. It was admitted that some 300,000 water shutoffs have happened over a period of years, a fact the City was not ashamed to admit. Must have felt the same rage and shock like those in the room in Nuremberg during that trial, listening to soldiers talking about how they were just following orders....

Shutting off water in Detroit. Photo credit: detroitnews.com

The Special Rapporteurs’ questions and the session ended in about 90 minutes, after which they traveled back to their hotel to prepare the press release for the media. Their specific UN conclusions are online, which include a strong recommendation that all residential water accounts be restored, which allows the City to investigate each address to determine if there are low-income families with children, the disabled, the elderly, or veterans living there who need supportive programs that structure payments they can afford. There are other recommendations the SRs offered, that have been published far and wide that address other ways of managing delinquent water payments that other nations routinely employ.

In closing, MWRO agrees with the basic, fundamental conclusion offered by our international guests. Because the population of Detroit has dropped, because the unemployment numbers have risen, because the good paying auto-industrial jobs have disappeared, and because many of the jobs available today are low-paying, the City still has a legal obligation to supply clean water and sanitation to all — even if only one resident is left! It is in fact a violation of international law to deprive residents of water if they are too poor to pay in the regular way. Ms. de Albuquerque and Ms. Farha were not daunted by Mayor Duggan and his staffs comments. Clearly, they don’t understand the UN reps’ mission.

This is not a popularity contest that is directed by who we like and who we don’t. It is patently wrong to disconnect water where low-income people live, and no amount of “American Exceptionalism” can alter that fact. There are millions of poor Americans who live in horrible conditions that are ignored daily while we act as if all is well; and Detroit has a large share of those families.

The responses coming from the City are at best shallow, defensive, ignorant, and at least, devoid of compassion. What kind of city is this and what kind of people are in charge who would countenance such demonic practices? Are our elected officials so drunk with power that they would choose not to find a way to keep the poorest residents safe and clean? Why didn’t someone in city government stand up when the emergency manager made this life-threatening recommendation and scream to the highest star how wrong it is and that as duly-elected officials, you would not force-march masses of Detroit residents into the crematoriums of poverty and torture?

Thousands march in Detroit against water shutoffs. Photo credit: michiganradio.org

Why did it take strangers, trained in recognizing violations against humanity, to shine a light on these dark-age practices and call them out for what they are? This is the best example of how the recognition of class differences have surfaced because we have different ethnic races of administrators, both men and women, both young and old who have been part of this sorry episode of residential infliction of pain. Our elected city officials would have found continued comfort in the torture of low-income people had they not had the covers of gross negligence pulled from them exposing what all knew but few had the courage to declare.

Along with our city officials stand many of the members of the clergy from all denominations, who have stood in silence while the torture of the most vulnerable has unfolded. The Spirit that many profess to serve has been waiting for you all to discover your courage or your voice or at least your crippled-hand gripped around a pen where you could author an anonymous note decrying what has been happening relative to these water shutoffs. I try daily to forgive your cowardice and hope only that when you make your transition to the afterlife, that the fires of “hell” are unkind to you.

We hope the legal violations identified by the two Special Rapporteurs find their way sooner as written charges to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and also to the U.S. State Dept. All nations should be alerted about these international violations so that sanctions might be discussed and even levied to make this practice stop. The U.S. government is ultimately responsible to secure the human rights of the most vulnerable and that task lies first with our ‘beloved’ mayor, then with the county executive, then with the governor, and lastly with all presidents.

As a field general in the army of social justice for vulnerable, low-income populations, it falls to me and mine to keep this battle in the face of all humanity and to take every opportunity to convince those in power that their salvation lies in distancing themselves from the “dark” side in favor of protecting, serving, and advancing the quality of life for all.

Maureen D. Taylor
State Chairperson, MI Welfare Rights Organization

DWSD Regional Water Authority Is an Assault on Democracy and Human Right to Water

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 10, 2014

Contact:

Lynna Kaucheck, Food & Water Watch, (586) 556-8805

Tawana Petty, People’s Water Board, (313) 433-9882

People’s Water Board Coalition Calls Regional Water Authority an Assault Against Democracy and the Human Right to Water
Community calls for protection and representation for all region’s residents

Detroit, Mich. – The People’s Water Board decried Mayor Mike Duggan’s plan to create a regional water authority as undemocratic and a threat to the human right to water for many in the region. We have access to the largest body of surface freshwater in the world, so it would seem abundance and access should not be an issue. However the manner of governing this valuable resource as responsible environmental stewards for the world has left many communities without trust.

The deal was negotiated behind closed doors without any input from the public and is the next step on the pathway to privatization. It takes away the rights of both the Detroit City Council and the citizens of Detroit to have input on big decisions impacting the system.

“Suburban customers should not be fooled into thinking that this deal gives them more control or influence over the water system,” said Lynna Kaucheck of the People’s Water Board. “The new authority will be made up of unelected officials who are accountable to no one. People need to know that this deal doesn’t take privatization off the table.”

Veolia Water North America, the largest private water company operating in the United States, has been hired to evaluate the management of the system and clearly has a vested interest in privatization. Privatization typically results in skyrocketing rates, decreased service quality and the loss of jobs. In fact, corporate profits, dividends and income taxes can add 20 to 30 percent to operation and maintenance costs, and a lack of competition and poor negotiation skills can leave local governments with expensive contracts. In the Great Lakes region, large private water companies charge more than twice as much as cities charge for household water service. This is not the solution for Detroit or the region.

“The regionalization plan is unacceptable. We need a system that is accountable and transparent and that works for all its customers,” said Tawana Petty of the People’s Water Board. “We want an elected board of water commissioners. We want to reduce costs for the region through bulk purchasing and resource sharing. And we want to implement the Affordability Plan as passed by Detroit City Council in 2005. Detroit and suburban leaders need to protect residents and democratize the system.”

The People’s Water Board advocates for access, protection, and conservation of water, and promotes awareness of the interconnectedness of all people and resources.

The People’s Water Board includes: AFSCME Local 207, Baxter’s Beat Back the Bullies Brigade, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Detroit Green Party, Detroit People’s Platform, Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Food & Water Watch, FLOW, Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, Matrix Theater, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, Sierra Club, Sisters of Mercy, Voices for Earth Justice  and We the People of Detroit.

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Water Apathy in Detroit

An Open Letter from MWRO member, Ann Grimmett:

In the past few months while collecting signatures in & around Detroit for the advisory question initiative for the water affordability plan to be put on the ballot in November, I've experienced a great deal of apathy, negativity and outright ignorance.

It's appalling that in these troubled times, in this (could be) great nation, that the response to something as vital as assuring that we ALL have water (which is a HUMAN right), that simply signing a petition is viewed by those who (think) that they are "alright", as an affront to their personal choices, while their neighbor is LIVING without the most essential element that GOD made!

What's more appalling is that without listening to or reading the information supplied by the petitioners, far too many Detroiters are opting to "pretend" that they aren't affected by the possible "Corporate Takeover" of the citizens of Detroit's publicly owned water department/system!

Shame on you residents of DETROIT for the lackadaisical attitudes and practices that have
allowed our great city to be pillaged raped and plundered!

Get offyour butts and get a petition from Welfare Rights, circulate it among your family and friends and return it IMMEDIATELY so that we the people can decide, since we obviously
cannot trust "OTHERS" to make sure our "behinds" are WELL covered!

DO IT TODAY!

Latest MWRO Newsletter

The May MWRO newsletter is posted on the wiki http://mwro.pbwiki.com/
It is focused on the Water Affordability petition campaign.

http://mwro.pbwiki.com/

Fred

People's Water Board Created In Detroit

By Gwendolyn Gaines and Sylvia Orduño, MWRO

We’re pleased to announce that the first meeting of the People’s Water Board in Detroit was a big success! Representatives from several organizations, including the Green Party, Sierra Club, Call ‘em Out, Moratorium Now, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, AFSCME Local 207, MECAWI, and MWRO, laid the groundwork for this coalition of water activists.

All participants were concerned about the need for clean, accessible water, plus shut-offs, privatization, and the Water Affordability Plan. The People’s Water Board is taking the first steps to ensure that local water remains in public hands, investigate who and where the threats are to this, and will act as an advocate for the people.

The People’s Water Board identified several short- and long-term goals such as ensuring access to water for all people (including getting the Water Affordability Plan on the November 2009 Detroit ballot); protecting water quality and water conservation; and opposing privatization of water resources.

The next People’s Water Board will meet May 26, 2009 at 6pm at MCHT (2727 Second Ave, Detroit, MI). Meanwhile, nominations are underway for Commissioners. For more information, contact Melissa Damaschke at the Sierra Club (313) 965-0055, melissa.damaschke@sierraclub.org

(Image courtesy of Michigan Sierra Club)

Detroit Petition Rally--Our Water, Our City!

On Saturday, March 7th, dozens of Detroit residents and activists will meet for a kick off rally to stop water shut-offs in Detroit. MWRO is coordinating a petition drive to put on the November ballot a measure that will prevent the shutting off of water to residents, especially low-income families and seniors.

For the past several years, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept (DWSD)--the third largest municipal provider in the country--has shut off water service to over 70,000 households. Between 2002-2003, over 40,000 homes were without water service because of their inability to pay!

Water is a human right. It is owned by no one and those who are tasked with processing it to ensure that it is safe to drink and use also have a responsibility to make sure that it is affordable and accessible to all!

Detroit residents and community organizations have battled for over seven years to draft and enact a water affordability program. These efforts have been stalled, switched, and squashed by local politicians and corporate interests who are concerned not with families but with profits. Moreover, the DWSD Board of Directors has made no effort to investigate the public health crisis associated with massive water shut-offs.

Several Detroit and Highland Park documentaries have been made that illustrate the desperation and fear experienced by families living without water. In Michigan, the crisis is exacerbated by Dept of Human Services case workers who can and do remove children from homes without the proper utilities.

Join the "Our Water, Our City" rally on Saturday, March 7, 2009 from 10am-12pm at Central United Methodist Church (23 E. Adams, 4th Floor, downtown Detroit). Flyers available on the MWRO website.

Detroit's Water Czar

While Congress and the White House toss around the fate of thousands of auto workers, and discuss the creation of a "Car Czar," we thought we'd mention another local czar in the news, Judge John Feikens.

Thirty-seven years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued the Detroit Sewerage and Water Dept (DWSD) and the city to stop polluting the Detroit River. Judge Feikens was charged with overseeing local efforts--as the de facto water czar--and requiring local governments to respond to the lawsuit. Snow, rain, and widespread development created massive storm drain run-offs that contributed to water contamination in rivers and the area's watershed.

Many local groups have applauded Judge Feikens' heavy-handed efforts to comply with this Clean Water Act ruling, and there are noticeable improvements in the areas rivers, lakes, and beaches. In fact, his Detroit efforts have caused some to believe that this could be a national model for other cities.

But during this time, residents of two local water depts--the DWSD and Highland Park Water Dept--had another set of crises that the water czar did not include in his regional remedy plan. Since 2002 in Detroit, thousands of low-income residents had their water shut-off for lack of payment. In Highland Park, nearly half of the city's 16,000 residents had their water shut-off by cash-strapped local officials.

For several years, MWRO has worked in concert with local residents and grassroots leaders to have the water departments address this wide-scale public health and human rights problem. On several occasions, Judge Feikens' name came up by local water and city council officials as we pressed for relief or a moratorium on shut-offs.

Waterless residents were told that before any public policy changes could be made to help vulnerable populations restore their water service or establish affordable payments options, the water czar would first require payment and compliance with his legal orders by the water depts. In Highland Park, this made matters worse. Residents were receiving bills in the thousands of dollars (see film, The Water Front), and the city was nearly under receivership by the Governor because it could not pay its own bills.

For the past six years, MWRO members and local residents have sought a Water Affordability Program that would prevent shut-offs and allow low-income households to make modest monthly payments. We reached out to Judge Feikens for assistance and guidance and not once did we receive a response. If the Detroit water czar is truly interested in improving the area's quality of life through clean water then, we believe, part of that entails ensuring that the poorest members of the community are included and safeguarded against the harm of water shut-offs.

Lastly, a local study found that the cost of modernizing the Detroit region's sewage treatment plants and system pipes could be over $50 billion in the next 25 years. This could also double the cost of water bills within 15 years, which are already rising twice as fast as inflation. Low-income residents cannot manage this increase. What will the water czar do to avert this crisis?

Aging Water Infrastructure Results in Water Shut-offs

(Reposted from Great Lakes Town Hall)

By Melissa Damaschke, Sierra Club (Detroit, MI); and
Maureen Taylor, MWRO (Detroit, MI)

The Great Lakes currently provide drinking water to over 42 million people. Yet not everyone in the region can afford this vital resource. Upgrading aging water and sewage infrastructure is placing an unaffordable cost on residents, resulting in water being turned off in thousands of homes in Detroit.

In addition, this aging infrastructure is causing pollution to our Great Lakes. According to the Sierra Legal Defense Fund’s “2006 Great Lakes Sewage Report Card,” cities dumped over 23 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Great Lakes in 2006.

The Detroit Wastewater Treatment Facility is the largest discharger in the Great Lakes basin, processing between 700 million and 1 billion gallons of municipal and industrial wastewater each day. Heavy rainfall events or melting snow often overload the system, causing sewage overflows. The city reported over 200 sewage overflows in 2005, earning it the lowest grade of “D” on the Sierra Legal Defense Fund’s Report Card.

A combined sewage overflow happens during and after wet weather events, when rainwater or melting snow overloads many combined sewer systems. In such instances, large volumes of untreated domestic sewage and industrial wastewater flow directly into local water bodies.

Pollution from combined sewage overflows causes considerable damage, including drinking water contamination, beach closings, algal blooms, basement backups, waterborne illness, closed fishing grounds, loss of tourism, and depressed property values.

The high cost of upgrading and expanding the aging sewage system, among other things, forced the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to raise its water rates numerous times in recent years. Water—a basic human right—became unaffordable to many residents, thousands of whom had their water shut off because of a failure to pay their bills.

The City of Detroit has now adopted the Water Affordability Plan, which when implemented will help protect low income residents from water shutoffs.

This story highlights the connection between sewage infrastructure and drinking water and the critical importance of maintaining both systems and keeping these basic services affordable and available in all Great Lakes cities.

Throughout the week, you will hear more about Detroit’s aging infrastructure and personal stories of people who have had their water shut off in a state that is surrounded by water.

See Great Lakes Town Hall for more stories and to post your thoughts.

(BTW, today is the birthday of Maureen Taylor, MWRO State Chairperson--Happy Birthday!)

MWRO Re-launches Fight for Water Affordability Plan

From the Sep-Oct 2008 issue of Critical Moment

Water is a right!
By Fred Vitale (MWRO Volunteer Coordinator)

The June 22 resignation of Victor Mercado as head of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), coupled with the recent resignation of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who had appointed him, provides an opportunity to re-launch the fight for the Water Affordability Program (WAP), passed by Detroit City Council in 2006 but never implemented.

The WAP was initiated by the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) in response to the cutoff of water to tens of thousands of Detroit residents. Those most affected were seniors, people with disabilities, the unemployed, and people receiving state assistance. Those most in need were cutoff from water by a publicly-owned and operated utility! It was, and remains, a scandal.

After many demonstrations, hearings, thousands of phone calls and meetings, City Council passed the program. Within certain limits, it guarantees that every Detroiter will have water. Even though City Council required DWSD to implement the program, it did not. Instead, the Kilpatrick regime passed a vastly underfunded water assistance program that still kept tens of thousands of people without water; it was able to help less than 1,500 people before the money ran out. Money pledged and collected has not been accounted for. While Victor Mercado and Kwame Kilpatrick were in office, City Council did not have the courage or the will to force the department to implement this critical human rights program or request a full accounting of the money spent.

Winning the full implementation of the program in Detroit can help build the struggle to stop shutoffs in all 286 communities serviced by the DWSD. The complete WAP is available from Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, 23 E. Adams, fourth floor, Detroit, MI 48226, for copying and postage costs. To join or support this struggle, please contact MWRO at the address above, phone 313-964-0618 or on the web at www.mwro.org