Posts categorized as Midwest

In June, Rio de Janiero, Brazil will play host to heads of state, UN agencies, and global stakeholders as they convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), commonly known as “Rio+20.” There’s a lot at stake.

On June 5, 2012, we’ll be uniting to tell the U.S. negotiators to get Wall Street out of Rio. We’re sending a message:

• We want a truly green economy, not a green-washed economy.
• We want an economy that supports communities, not multinational corporations. And we want an economy that upholds our common resources like water as a public trust, not a commodity, and recognizes the human right to water.

Right now, the Rio+20 “green economy” agenda is being driven by interests that seek to privatize nature by further deregulating industry and handing our common resources over to companies for profit.

Our food system is broken. Bad food policies have helped to consolidate our food system, making it incredibly difficult for independent family farmers to get fair access to the marketplace and for consumers to have access to safe, affordable, healthy foods. The 2012 Farm Bill is our opportunity to begin to fix our broken food system. Join us and learn how corporate control and consolidation has impacted our food system and what you can do to help fix it.

Speakers include: Sandra Nordmark, Michigan Farmers Union Kendall Lockwood, National Farmers Organization Cynthia Price, Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council

We’re demanding that Walmart reject Monsanto’s genetically engineered sweet corn. Join hundreds of GE activists by planning an event at your local Walmart store.

Genetically engineered sweet corn is the first Monsanto crop being marketed for direct human consumption. Walmart could have a major impact in ending the market for this untested, unlabeled and potentially unsafe GE vegetable. Walmart claims to care about the environment and the health of their customers, but actions speak louder than words. 

On Saturday, March 17th, people like you and me are organizing events at Walmart stores across the nation. The goals are to raise awareness about the problems associated with GE foods and to convice Walmart to commit not to sell GE Sweet Corn. 

Use the search tool to find an event near you! If you can’t find and event, you can host or own, or sign up to deliver petition signatures to your local store.

By Kate Fried

Be honest–this morning when you first turned on the tap to hop into the shower, make coffee, or engage in one of the other countless everyday tasks that requires water, you probably didn’t take a moment to reflect on the fact that clean water flowed from the faucet. No, you turned on the tap and beautiful clear liquid flowed from it—just like it did countless other times, as you’ve come to expect as a resident of a developed nation. Because that’s what happens when we take a resource for granted—we cease to think about it until something goes horribly wrong.

Well, if you live in Pontiac, Michigan, that day may be lurking right around the corner. A while back, the state appointed an Emergency Financial Manager to help whip the city’s troubled finances into shape. Last year, the manager handed the city’s water and sewer systems over to United Water, which if you follow such matters, you know has a track record of raising consumer rates and providing unreliable service. It was also charged with conspiracy and felony violations of the Clean Water Act in a 26-count indictment in Gary, Indiana last year.

Its performance in Pontiac hasn’t been terribly illustrious either. So far the Emergency Financial Manager has raised the price of drinking water for consumers by five percent, and sewage service by 14 percent. Additional increases are expected in 2012.

And now, it appears that the situation may worsen. The Emergency Financial Manager authorized that effective next month United Water will deny service to anyone who fails to pay their water bill. With nearly a third of Pontiac living below the poverty line, the prospect that some won’t be able to pay their water bills is a very real one, especially if rates continue to increase. So if you’re poor and living in Pontiac, cross water off the list of basic human rights you’ll be able to enjoy.

So far few have taken note of this situation, except for some financial gurus, who expect this strategy to raise money for the city. I guess it hasn’t occurred to them that people don’t pay their water bills because they can’t afford to, so threatening service cutoffs is unlikely to bring in much money.

Luckily, there may be a happy ending for some in all this gloom. Activists in Michigan are close to getting a referendum on the November ballot that would repeal recent changes to the state’s Emergency Financial Manager law. If those changes are repealed, emergency financial managers would no longer have sweeping authority over city finances and operations, and other cities would not have to suffer the same fate as Pontiac.

For more information visit Michigan Forward.

Food & Water Watch and our Take Back the Tap Campaign at the University of Michigan are bringing Canadian comedian and activist Derek Forgie to Ann Arbor to do his sketch “Inside the Bottle.” Join us for this FREE event!

Our friends at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement are holding a rally and lobby day at the Statehouse this Tuesday, Jan. 10th, and have asked us to stand with them in pushing for policies that put people first and hold factory farms accountable, among other issues. Please join us at the Statehouse on Tuesday for this exciting day. We will have time to meet with legislators and speak out about what we want our state to look like.

Here is the schedule and details for the day:

9AM: Meet on the 1st floor Rotunda
10AM: Gov. Branstad’s “State of the State” address
11AM: Our “STATE OF THE 99%” address and rally
12–3PM: Lobby legislators and other decision makers
3PM: Rally and report back

New Food & Water Watch Analysis Shows that Inter-municipal Partnerships can Better Deliver Safe, Affordable Water to Illinois Consumers

Chicago, Ill.—New analysis by national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch finds that Illinois’s largest private water utilities are earning profits of as much as $18 million dollars a year, while raising rates for consumers by as much as 23 percent. Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois: Community Experiences With the Largest Investor-Owned Water Utilities in Illinois shows that Illinois’s communities are better served by publicly owned and operated water systems and that public-public partnerships are better options through which to efficiently deliver affordable water to consumers.

“The experience of Illinois consumers with these private water companies highlights the need for publicly-owned and operated water systems that are locally-controlled, transparent and more accountable to ratepayers. Only publicly owned and operated water systems can deliver high-quality water at an affordable price,” said Emily Carroll, an organizer for Food & Water Watch.

Residential customers of the water systems purchased by Illinois American Water (IAW) and Aqua Illinois over the last fifteen years have seen their water bills more than double on average since privatization. Nationally, water rates typically increase 5 percent a year, but Illinois customers of these two corporations are seeing their water rates increase 260 percent faster than the typical increase. Despite the high prices, the companies’ customers have received poor service in the form of billing mistakes, inadequate water pressure and even improper fire hydrant maintenance.

In just the first eight months of 2011, IAW and Aqua Illinois spent a combined $33,300 on campaign contributions and $3,080 on lobbying state officials to influence policy in their favor. Communities such as Homer Glen in Will County have seen their water rates increase by as much as 82 percent, even when customer service has been so bad that village residents were charged for IAW’s unaccounted-for water. 

“Under private ownership, people pay much more than their neighbors across the street who get their water from a public utility, even though that water comes from the same source — Lake Michigan,” said Representative Renée Kosel, assistant republican leader of the Illinois House of Representatives. “One of the factors making it difficult for my constituents to sell their homes is high utility rates from Illinois American Water.”

Since Bolingbrook sold its drinking water system to Illinois American Water in 2002, residents have been slammed with rate hikes, adding $267 to $615 onto typical annual bills. Under public ownership, residents paid $246 a year for 72,000 gallons of well water, or $524 a year for water from Lake Michigan. In 2011, Illinois American Water charged households $922 a year for the same amount of water. Yet, Bolingbrook’s water prices were 228 percent higher than the average price of ten nearby publicly owned water systems supplying Lake Michigan water. 

Despite the high rates paid in Lisle, Illinois American Water has consistently provided water service with water pressure so low that it was considered “woefully inadequate” for fire fighting. In 2007, a group is Lisle residents sued the company for this.

The track record of Aqua Illinois is not much better. In 2007, Aqua Illinois bought the water system serving Manteno. In less than one year, about a hundred customers had problems with their bills; in some cases, the company charged them nine times as much as their actual water usage. One customer was even charged for supposedly using 270,000 gallons of water on a vacant lot.

“The track records of Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois demonstrate that privatization is not a responsible or acceptable way to address the needs of water and sewer systems in Illinois,” said Carroll. “Instead, policy makers should explore the benefits of public-public partnerships, which would especially benefit low-income and rural communities.” 

Food and Water Watch’s analysis finds that municipalities can better serve consumers by sharing resources and expertise. These public-public partnerships can enhance service quality and save money while allowing communities to retain local control of an essential resource.

Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois: Community Experiences With the Largest Investor-Owned Water Utilities in Illinois is available here: (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/briefs/illinois-american-water-and-aqua-illinois/)

Contact: Emily Carroll, Food and Water Watch, (773) 318-3823, ecarroll(at)fwwatch(dot)org.