Future water shortages caused by CREC have been a topic of discussion and speculation for many months. That indeed there is a serious risk is clear from information contained in documents obtained from several Rhode Island departments in response to Fossil Free RI‘s request made under the Access to Public Records Act.
As a reminder, the following is worth quoting from a previous post based on documents supplied by the RI Department of Health:
According to a presentation at a meeting about CREC attended by several state agencies, 0.18 MGD (million of gallons of water per day) will be left for growth if the power plant is built. June Swallow of the Center for Drinking Water Quality at the Rhode Island Department of Health attended the meeting. Her longhand notes show that Harrisville and Pascoag each are expected to need 0.12 MGD for growth. This suggests a deficit of 0.24 MGD – 0.18 MGD = 0.06 MGD.
Also documents supplied by the RI Department of Environmental Management raise concern. There is, for example, the following email exchange between Alisa Richardson of RIDEM and Ken Burke formerly of the Rhode Island Water Resources Board:
Thanks Alisa,
I think we should talk about having the Town acknowledge that with low flow conditions and high energy demands, that the Town is effectively pledging most (if not all) of its available water to this development. This local decision is theirs to make. Will someone from the Town also be at this meeting?
Thank you,
Kenneth J. Burke, P.E.MBA
General Manager/Treasurer
This email (my emphasis) appears on page 50 of this document. There is more of interest, but the conclusion is the same; search the document for “Alisa” and “Ken.”
Also Stephanie Sloman, a retired environmental engineer who worked for a large electroplating plant in Massachusetts, weighed in. She submitted a thorough and detailed testimony to the Invenergy docket of the Energy Facility Siting Board.
Her conclusion is that, no matter how you look at it, there is not enough water for future growth in Burrillville and the other towns that draw from the same source.
Clearly, the RI departments of Environmental Management and Health, and the Water Resources Board are aware of the looming water supply problem. As Stephanie Sloman explains, anyone capable of elementary arithmetic can check this. As she points out, Invenergy is apparently is not one of those.
Recently, Gina Raimondo mentioned that she would withdraw her support for the CREC project if there were any issues. Of course, trouble with the water supply is only one of a myriad of issues each single one of which should suffice for her to make good on that promise.
]]>We need look no further than the recent disaster in Flint, Michigan, for examples of how private involvement with a public good can be perilous. The Flint story, at the outset, sounds a lot like Providence’s—a broke city government, needing desperately to save money, ended its contract with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department and changed its water source. Nearly a year before the news broke of the widespread lead poisoning, the world’s largest water corporation, Veolia, had judged the water safe. The city of Flint had hired Veolia to evaluate water quality, and Veolia’s report didn’t mention the lead that made thousands ill. Veolia is a company—its first concern is making money, not public health. Those who paid the price were the residents, particularly the children.
Or there was the case of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Between 1999 and 2000, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets in response to at attempt to privatize the municipal water company. The so-called “Water Wars” put Cochabamba on the map, because the local government sold its values short in trying to make a buck off of the most basic human need. (The citizens prevailed, by the way, after five months of clashes with the police. Privatization was reversed).
Flint and Cochabamba are two examples, but there are many reasons to be skeptical of privatization. On average, privately owned water systems charge 59% more than publicly owned systems. This amounts to a difference of $185 in water costs per year, which can represent a substantial percent of someone’s income, especially if that person is in a lower income bracket.
More broadly, to privatize a public resource relinquishes control over a vital public good. To privatize would limit public accountability—corporations are accountable to their stockholders above all, not to the citizens of Providence. And it follows that the objectives of a profit making water company can, at times, conflict with the public interest. Do we really want to put ourselves in this type of situation?
Six years ago, the UN General Assembly declared that access to clean drinking water was a human right. As climate change makes accessing fresh water progressively more difficult, we will have to be particularly thoughtful about how we manage one of our most precious resources. Privatization is neither responsible nor just.
]]>It is difficult to discern from this figure how many residents and businesses in Providence are therefore consuming water from lead water lines due to the varied nature of occupancy at a given address in the city. According to Water Supply website 60.85 million gallons are used per day.
Customers are not facing the immediate danger of lead poisoning similar to Flint. The disaster in Flint happened because a chemical was added to the water that leached lead from the pipes and solder, infusing the water with lead that would otherwise not have been present. This chemical was added to the water supply because, in an effort to save money, the government had switched the water supply from the much cleaner Detroit Water and Sewage supply system to the much dirtier Flint river, a waterway that was polluted over decades by industrial and automotive factories that were built up alongside its banks. If this chemical had not been added to the Flint river water supply, the plumbing system in the municipality, still including lead pipes and solder, would not have poisoned the population. Providence, like many other municipalities, regularly flushes its plumbing systems via fire hydrants to prevent concentration of lead from accumulating.
Recently, the Associated Press issued a report on Providence’s aging water infrastructure:
An analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data by The Associated Press found that Providence’s drinking water system was one of the largest in the country to exceed a federal lead standard since 2013. It has gone over the limit six times since 2010 after testing samples of the tap water used by about 300,000 people in Providence and the surrounding cities of Cranston, Johnston and North Providence.
This is akin to what Rhode Island’s Future reported several months ago when this news was carried in The Guardian.
The crisis in Flint, Michigan has reignited a national conversation about lead plumbing and safety, a discussion that includes the water system of Providence. We decided to take a deeper look at this issue and outline first the parameters and then the solutions possible to this issue.
]]>The influential Guardian newspaper ran a story on Friday, January 22, 2015 titled US authorities distorting tests to downplay lead content of water that calls into question lead testing techniques allegedly encouraged state of Rhode Island employees. At the heart of the report is a letter written by Dr. Yanna Lambrinidou of Virginia Tech under the letterhead of Parents for Nontoxic Alternatives.
Dr. Lambrinidou writes to the EPA National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC):
I share fully the working group’s commitment to a revised LCR [Lead and Copper Rule for plumbing] that maximizes the protection of public health. I also commend the working group for its bold and innovative idea of building a brand new rule that is based on proactive, rather than reactive, full lead service line (LSL) replacement. As I mention in my statement, I see this as a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, however, my extensive experience with lead in drinking water in Washington, DC and nationally, has led me to believe that the working group’s specific recommendations for how to implement a forward-thinking LCR would leave consumers less protected from exposures to lead and drinking water than would a revised version of the current rule that closes its well-known loopholes.
The attached statement includes links to reports made by Rhode Island Public Radio regarding the cessation of lead water line replacements and says there is a significant level of lead contamination in the Providence water supply as well as the wider state supply. Here is a letter she recently wrote to the residents of Philadelphia that has applications also to Rhode Island:
Simultaneous with this report, Next City is running a report by Cassie Owens titled Providence Maps Show “Apartheid Lines” of Environmental Racism that deals with the placement of toxic storage facilities in relation to poor neighborhoods, including this graphic.
Rhode Island’s Future is going to continue to follow this story and investigate this issue to the fullest extent possible.
]]>Water Vigils Around the World – Jan 21st. http://wvpublic.org/post/worldwide-candle-light-vigil-planned-response-elk-river-chemical-spill#.Ut7Cr6GlJkc.email
Here’s a little update-
http://sc.org/WVwaterupdate…Headline news in RI the spilled Coal Cleaning chemicals reached Evansville Indiana today. Reading what could have happened in terms of what is going on in Chemical Vally relatively unregulated the next spill could be worse. However this chemical is spooky, there is very little known about it and what it combines with. Great article.
Quotes from the field:
Honoring the Waters Candlelight Vigil Charleston,WV Press Quotes
For any other questions contact Kat Wallace: kat.toplessamerica.org 978-771-0979
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“The crisis that Crude MCHM has caused highlights just how important water is to life, especially in West Virginia. How much longer can we allow the likes of the chemical, gas, oil, and coal industries to destroy this precious resource for profit? We all live downstream. We have seen the blatant disrespect for public health and life from the WV Governors administration, the WVDEP, and these industries. Now is the time that West Virginians to not think of themselves as victims, but as fighters. Now is the time to make a change not for the benefit of West Virginia, but the whole world. Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
Dustin White: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition www.ohvec.org 304-541-3144
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“The coal and chemical Industry created conditions to allow disasters like this chemical spill to happen, because of the influence they have over the State Government. Clean water is a human right. We have a right to know what is stored in our communities. “
Bill Price: Sierra Club Organizing Representative Environmental Justice Program; Beyond Coal to Clean Energy Campaign bill.price@sierraclub.org 304-389-8822 ___________________________________________________________________
“The outpouring of support for this event in the Kanawha Valley, around the nation and world shows the universal concern for our right to clean water. This is a powerful illustration of unity in cultivating healing and restoration of our rivers.”
Angie Rosser: Executive Director West Virginia Rivers Coalition
www.wvrivers.org 304-637-7201
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“Being a first time mother can be stressful, but when you receive conflicting information of whether I can drink or cook with the water is even worse. I live a mile away from the spill site and took a shower last week and had a bad reaction. I know use a camping shower, which is not at all cost effective. At this point I haven’t gone to distribution sites because I know there are people that really can’t afford to buy water. Depending on how long this continues, I might have to start.”
Stephanie Gale: 33 Yr. Old Expectant Mother, Kanawha County
________________________________________________________________________Honoring the Waters Candlelight Vigil Charleston,WV Press Quotes
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“West Virginians in affected areas are scared, angry, and confused. They have been told the water was safe, yet the water was not safe for pregnant women. They were told by Tomlin that it was ‘our choice’ whether or not to drink the water! As if having access to bottled water, having the money to buy it, and the ability to haul and cart it every day was a CHOICE.
“We have been blessed with an outpouring of support and solidarity from people all across our state as well as out of state. I am amazed at what we are able to accomplish through direct connections established through the WV Clean Water Hub as well as through working with community leaders, in both affected and supporting communities, who have stepped up during this crisis. This crisis is far from over and we must all work together to settle into a sustainable level of support that we can maintain over the coming weeks.”
Jen-Osha Buysee Aurora Lights: Emergency Relief Organizer jenosha@auroralights.org
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“Through this disaster I have been reassured that I am proud to be a West Virginian. The folks who make me proud to be a West Virginian are those who haven’t had work since the water crisis but are still at their local fire departments and churches handing out supplies every day. The folks who make me proud to be a West Virginian are angry about what has happened to their communities and demand something be done to fix it. The folks who make me proud to be a West Virginian live in unaffected areas but have still worked every day to collect donations and supplies to send to the affected areas. West Virginians stay strong no matter what happens. We bond together as tight-knit communities and we help each other through times of need. ”
Hannah Spencer Aurora Lights: Emergency Relief Organizer
hannah@auroralights,org 304-282-6798
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