Miss Michigan & state legislators…Time to act for clean water

A writer wouldn’t start their next novel without an outline. A construction company wouldn’t break ground without a blueprint. And we can’t make our country better without a clear vision for it. That’s where America’s Goals come in. In this email update, States Matter, we’ll dive into what it takes to achieve America’s Goals — and then provide a quick round-up of the good, the bad and the ugly in state-level policy and politics.

This week: It’s a tragic statement on where our country is today, but increasingly Americans are being forced to fight just to have clean water in their communities. Across the country, state legislative candidates ran on clean water — and won. They now have to get to work towards realizing America’s Goal 7b: Clean air and water for every community. And for a helping hand talking about the importance of clean water, check out our social media toolkit.

In July, the 3,000 people in Parchment, Michigan were told to stop drinking their tap water. The culprit? A class of chemical known as PFAS was found at over 20 times the safe level in the town’s water.

For almost a month, neighboring Kalamazoo stepped up: first the state sent bottled water — and then Kalamazoo provided its own tap water — so that people in Parchment could drink, cook and do laundry safely.

Water pollution goes beyond Parchment and Flint. Throughout Michigan, algae blooms in Lake Erie and a leaking pipeline connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan threaten the state’s economy, tourism and way of life.

Seemingly wherever they look (including Michigan’s Emily Sioma’s protest-introduction at the Miss America contest), Michiganders are seeing the threat of poisoned drinking water.

In Michigan, candidates for the State House ran to push the legislature to take meaningful action against water pollution. Spirited Future Now Fund-endorsees (and Representatives-elect!) Jim Haadsma, Padma Kuppa and Laurie Pohutsky campaigned and won on promises to fight for safe water in their communities and around the state.

Their leadership will mark a real change. For five years, Michigan has ignored warnings about PFAS and failed to set a state limit for the chemicals. And the state government has given Nestlé clean water to bottle and sell — instead of giving it to residents of Flint and other communities with contaminated water. And meanwhile Detroit Public Schools have shut off water because of copper and lead contamination. There’s a reason Michiganders voted for state lawmakers who will do something.

Safe water is a major issue around the country.

Hundreds of miles away in North Carolina, the flooding from Hurricanes Florence and Matthew caused (yet another) spill of coal ash supposedly secured by Duke Energy. And contamination by a PFAS chemical called GenX has potentially poisoned hundreds of thousands of people. The majority lawmakers’ response? Chemours-DuPont, which is responsible for the spill, has yet to be held accountable. People who depend on the water are fed up: that’s why newly elected officials like Future Now Fund-endorsees Sydney Batch and Rachel Hunt are going to the General Assembly after running on corporate accountability for poisoning water.

Up the Atlantic coast, in New Hampshire, where both the State House and State Senate will have new majorities come January, Future Now Fund-endorsees Shannon Chandley and Tom Sherman won their Senate seats by knocking on doors and talking to their soon-to-be constituents every day. Again and again, they heard about PFAS polluting well water and potentially causing outbreaks of thyroid disease or contamination all across the Greater Seacoast.

Right across the border in Maine, a lack of action on lead poisoning was one of the driving issues of this year’s election — and one reason a new majority was elected to the State Senate. And like in New Hampshire, Maine’s state government isn’t doing enough: The outgoing governor vetoed legislation designed to address the serious problem of lead contamination in the communities of Senator-elect Ned Claxton, who was endorsed by Future Now Fund and incumbent Senator Rebecca Millett. Guess which issue they talked about daily during voter canvassing.

It’s water.

All across the country — from school pipes to private wells — lead, PFAS and other dangerous toxins are entering our drinking water at threatening levels. As Future Now Executive Director Daniel Squadron told The New York Times about state lawmakers on the 2018 campaign trail, “They’re hearing more about water than Donald Trump.”

Lead and PFAS may be two of the most common contaminants. After the Flint crisis, national testing in public schools found that almost 40% of schools had lead in their drinking water — and that’s only among the 40% of schools that even ran tests!

Despite this shocking finding, the federal reaction has been as slow and politicized as you would fear. With the EPA acting at a snail’s pace, the path to protecting water is through state action.

For a look at how your state can set limits on water contaminants, be sure to check out the new Policy Library from Future Now.

Americans are demanding that corporations stop poisoning our water. That demand drove this year’s elections throughout the country — and it’s not going to go anywhere until we all know our water is safe. This is a universal, local concern. Water, water, everywhere — and it’s the big issue.

Each week, progress, setbacks, and messiness towards achieving America’s Goals in state policy and politics.

The Good

In a rare bipartisan move to expand voting rights, Massachusetts citizens will be automatically registered to vote beginning in 2020. This will put the state on track to hit America’s Goal 4b of at least 70% voter participation, up from the current 66.7%.

The Bad

Meanwhile in Georgia, the governor-elect and former Secretary of State Brian Kemp delayed 53,000 voter registrations — predominantly of black Georgians — according to the AP. Stacey Abrams’s apparent vote deficit? About 50,000. It was hard not to see this coming. Since 2010, Kemp’s office reports that it has purged upwards of 1.4 million voters from the rolls, including more than 660,000 Georgians in 2017 and almost 90,000 this year. Additionally, under an “exact match” law passed by the state legislature that requires handwritten voter registrations to be identical to personal documents, 53,000 people had their registrations moved to “pending” status because of typos or other errors before a district court enjoined the policy. Ensuring states don’t implement voting procedures designed to make it harder to register and vote is a crucial component of our democracy — and America’s Goal 4b.

The Ugly

Dallas is working hard to develop new pathways to combat racial and economic segregation — and one of the most important challenges it faces is Texas law. The city is trying to develop creative workarounds to state laws that forbid inclusionary zoning, prevent cities from taking action against racial discriminatory landlords and more. In the Dallas area, one of the most damaging consequences of segregation has been the pollution of poor communities of color. Clean air and water in every community is critical — and is Goal 7b.

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