 | | In Chicago’s Jardine Water Purification Plant, a bank of faucets releases water from various points in the system. Photo © Alex Garcia / Circle of Blue |
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President Joe Biden unveiled a wide-ranging jobs and infrastructure plan on Wednesday, asking Congress to support a $2 trillion investment in the built and natural systems that sustain American life, from trips to the grocery store to a glass of water from the faucet.
The administration is calling the proposal the American Jobs Plan, and among its many parts it includes $111 billion for water systems. A month after winter storms crippled water and electric providers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, the plan also calls for $50 billion to prepare the country’s infrastructure for an era of severe floods, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes. Like much of the plan, the $111 billion in water systems funding is described in broad strokes and headline numbers that sidestep, for now, details on how the money would be allocated. As part of that total, the plan offers $10 billion for monitoring and cleaning up toxic PFAS chemicals and investing in rural water systems, household wells, and septic units. The plan includes $56 billion for modernizing drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater conveyance and treatment. |
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People living on San Francisco’s streets and in its parks face daily barriers to finding and accessing clean water, according to a report released earlier this month by the nonprofit organization, Coalition on Homelessness.
The coalition surveyed 73 unhoused people during the 2020-21 winter months to better understand how they access, use, and store water. Of those surveyed — mostly elderly and disabled people living in the city's Tenderloin area — some 68 percent responded that meeting their daily water needs is a burden. |
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For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week’s episode of What’s Up With Water looks at: - In Albania, a campaign to stop hydropower development on the Vjosa River has received international attention.
- In South Asia last week, India and Pakistan met for the first time in over two years in an effort to resolve issues under the Indus Waters Treaty.
This week, Circle of Blue reports on a critical juncture for Michigan’s rural water systems, which now must reckon with decades of underinvestment in infrastructure. |
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| The Great Lakes Ready or Not project is produced by the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a partnership between Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at DPTV and Michigan Radio that explores an essential question: Are Great Lakes residents and leaders ready for the stirred and shaken conditions that climatologists say we can expect? A new piece will be published every Tuesday over the next four months. |
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 | | In the decade since Line 5 emerged as an issue of statewide concern, a debate about the pipeline’s future that began with concerns about an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac has morphed to include broad questions about how oil pipelines fit into the global energy transition. Photo © Lester Graham / Michigan Radio |
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Against the backdrop of recent carbon neutrality pledges from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and President Joe Biden, activists have ramped up their arguments that the Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy is threatening Michigan’s water as well as its climate future. Now, as a federal judge considers whether Line 5 should shut down in May and state and federal regulators decide whether to let Enbridge replace it with a tunneled pipe deep below the straits that could keep the oil flowing for decades, they’ll grapple with an issue of global significance: Are pipelines like Line 5 a “bridge to the energy future,” as Enbridge CEO Al Monaco has said, or a climate liability that threatens Michigan’s and the world’s progress toward carbon neutrality? |
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 | | A view of the contrasting realities on the two sides of Fox Creek. On one side, low, aging private seawalls are inadequate to protect the neighborhood from flooding during periods of high water. On the other side, a tall, public seawall protects residents from flooding and keeps their insurance rates low. Photo © Kelly House / Bridge Michigan |
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As the Great Lakes begin their seasonal swell, it’s too early to say whether this summer will bring more of the same. But over time, scientists expect severe floods to become increasingly common as climate change alters rainfall and temperature patterns in Michigan, bringing more intense periods of rain and drought and causing Great Lakes water levels to yo-yo more dramatically.
That leaves Michigan residents with two options: Reinforce their properties to prevent the next flood, or live with the consequences.
It’s a conundrum that communities from urban southeast Michigan to the ritzy vacation enclaves of west Michigan will encounter with increasing frequency: Who should pay for climate adaptation? |
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 | | Streets in Parchment, Michigan, near a site where PFAS chemicals contaminated groundwater. Towns like Parchment are eligible for a new state grant to help communities reduce drinking water contamination. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue |
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A new grant program in Michigan to rid drinking water systems of contaminants is proving to be quite popular.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy announced that 32 grant applicants, many of them small towns, requested more than $80 million in state funds. The problem? Only $25 million is available to hand out. |
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