Missing Waters
This week, Governor Rick Snyder gave His 8th and final State of the State address. It was filled with relentless positive comments. Snyder emphasized population growth, reduced unemployment rates, a strong automobile industry, and gains in personal income. “We're headed back in a positive fashion," Snyder said. “The state has enjoyed a tremendous recovery and "now we're accelerating this comeback into the future."
Snyder’s critics pointed out that the Governor avoided substantive discussion of difficult issues in the state, including immigration, the Flint Water Crisis, and sexual abuse. Snyder spent less than one-half minute of his 53-minute address on Flint.
Much of the speech emphasized jobs: how many we have created, what we need to do to create more, and what we need to do to make people more employable.
“Let me give you some illustrations on the job front,” Snyder said. “In the last few years since 2010, we created almost 500,000 jobs, making us number one in the Great Lakes region and number six in the nation for private sector job growth.”
Snyder is a prime example of the right-wing republican thinking that has become normal in our state. It begins with evading the issues that matter to the daily lives of most people, most of the time, and holds up making money as the only standard of judgment. Usually, this means a few people make a lot of money, at the expense of almost everyone else.
The absence of any substantial thinking about our future could be seen in the brief mention by of the looming disaster around drinking water in our state.
Here is the totality of what Snyder said, “Our environment, we need to focus on being cleaner, safer, healthier, more sustainable. It’s one of our greatest assets, the wonderful environment we live in with the Great Lakes, and all the wonderful things we have.
On water quality, we need to improve. We learned that from the Flint situation and I’m excited to be proposing a stricter standard than the federal government for the lead and copper rule. We need a better rule. That was part of the problem. It needs to have lower acceptable levels, it needs to have better testing protocols, it needs to have better notification and it needs to have better public input. So I look forward to working with the Legislature on that.
Then Snyder went on to talk about expanding the Soo Locks.
Snyder knows very well that 28 locations across the state have been found contaminated with the toxic substance polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS). PFAS was used in firefighting foam, particularly at military bases beginning in the 1950s, and was largely phased out by 2015.
PFAS increases the risk of some cancers, harms fetal development; decreases fertility; causes high cholesterol; and affects the immune system. The chemicals don't easily break down. At least five contaminated areas in Michigan are connected to current and former military bases. Selfridge Air Force Base; Camp Grayling; Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, and the now-shuttered Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda and K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in Marquette all have contributed to large-scale pollution.
For example, The DEQ and U.S. Air Force have spent the past five years dealing with a PFAS-contained groundwater plume emanating from the Wurtsmith base into other parts of Oscoda. The DEQ has yet to determine the outermost boundary of the contamination.
PFAS has been found in Ann Arbor municipal water, the Clinton River, and Lake St. Clair.
Across Michigan, PFAS have been detected in water or fish in the Au Sable River, Flint River, Kalamazoo River, Muskegon River, Saginaw River, St. Joseph River, Tahquamenon River, Dead River, Thunder Bay River, Rogue River and St. Marys River. The compounds were also found in parts of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie; as well as inland water bodies like Van Etten Lake, Lake St. Helen, and Otter Lake.
Snyder should have learned from Flint. Ignoring problems won’t make them go away. Nor will creating a task force to study them. We need a fundamental rethinking of our responsibilities to protect our waters and provide for the health of our people.