Just 90 minutes from Toronto, residents of a First Nations community try to improve the water situation as the beverage company extracts from their land.
There’s so much toxic wastewater produced from fracking oil and gas in the U.S. that it’s difficult to envision just how much water comes from the wells. Expressed in terms of barrels or swimming pools, the numbers still grow dizzyingly high.
CounterSpin interview with Peggy Case on water rights. ‘People Have to Strengthen the Laws Protecting the Water.’ Janine Jackson interviewed Peggy Case about Michigan water rights for the April 13, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
In the USA privatization practices contribute to increased water bills and jeopardize water quality, endangering one of residents' most basic needs. We can gain some perspective on the consequences of water privatization by looking to a glaring overseas example: In Lebanon, mismanagement of infrastructure has provided ample opportunity for privatization to proliferate. In both cases, the pursuit of privatization comes from cash-strapped places prioritizing cost-cutting over resource conservation and quality.
On June 23rd, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt expressed that a proposal to repeal the Clean Water Rule enacted in 2015 would be sent out by the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers. This proposed repeal would not only bring back the confusion and discord over what exactly the Clean Water Act protects, but would make it easier for polluters to contaminate the nation's waters.
'By denying water service to thousands, Detroit is violating the human right to water.'
First European Citizens' Initiative calls for water to be human right, not a commodity.
In the last few years the amount of geospatial information - electronic maps - that's become available is large. Information is available on such factors as climate data, land use, and distance to the river or elevation. Using this information, and by looking at the types of rocks present in the country, and in particular their age, the researchers pinpointed the regions where the toxic element is most likely to be found.
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