The Place Where Ludington Talks
AFFEW Leading from Behind
Local environmental group, A Few Fiends for the Environment of the World (AFFEW), has finally decided to consider the danger of pipelines other than Enbridge's Line Five pipeline which is over 100 miles away at its closest. It happened on the AFFEW Facebook site on March 14, with a petition posted by AFFEW President Julia Chambers:
The online petition reminds us that:
"Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin that persists in the environment and bioaccumulates when taken into the human body. Scientific consensus shows that there is no safe level of lead exposure.
The Flint water crisis is a terrifying example of the ongoing danger of lead contamination in the state's drinking water. The upcoming revisions to Michigan's Lead and Copper Rule represent an opportunity for Michigan to make essential improvements to the most important regulatory mechanisms for removing lead from the drinking water consumed by millions of people in the state.
"Michigan can never again allow our children to be poisoned with lead simply because they drank water from their home faucets. I urge you to strengthen Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule so no family has to endure the tragedy that many Flint families are still living with because lead leached into their drinking water."
It encourages you to send the following form letter to Governor Rick Snyder and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) in order to strengthen the lead restrictions:
"The Michigan Lead and Copper Rule must ensure protection of all Michigan citizens by:
- Banning partial lead pipe replacements and requiring full lead pipeline replacement with copper pipe from the water main to the home;
- Figuring out where all the lead service lines are, and prioritizing high-risk sites for service line inventories, water sampling and testing, and pipe replacement efforts.
- Moving as quickly as possible to keep families safe by making a health-based lead action level go into effect by January 1, 2021 rather than 2024.
- Requiring prompt and comprehensive public notification, education and safety measures to protect residents when lead is detected in drinking water, and during and after lead pipe replacement;
- Requiring water utilities to conduct robust monitoring of drinking water at the tap.
- Mandating proper corrosion control for water small, medium and large water systems.
- All small and medium water systems applying corrosion control treatment should maintain treatment even after their lead levels drop below the action level.
Putting Michigan on the path to prevent future disaster like what occurred in Flint is not only good for our state, it will also provide an example for the rest of the nation.
Thank you for considering my comments."
Two days later, I have been the only one to like the comment in any way, no 'shares' have occurred either. Yet that would seem to mean that the rest of the AFFEW members agree with the sentiment; it obviously would seem to be a goal of an environmentally conscious group. Heck, they recently were so happy that giving out a plastic straw in a California restaurant may get you fined for $1000. For a sanctuary state, they surely give no quarter for using a soda straw indiscriminately.
But going two years back, they have nothing else about what should be a paramount health/environment issue in Ludington. In 2013 through 2015, Mason County was either at the very top or 2nd in the amount of young kids with elevated blood lead levels in Michigan, way above Genessee County levels, where Flint is located. AFFEW had a couple references to Flint in the last two years, but never correlated it with a possible problem in Ludington.
However, in that same period of time, I have been railing at the Ludington City Council on thirteen separate occasions about the lead issue in Ludington, the prevalence of lead goosenecks and the troubling EBL levels that go back at least ten years. My first mention of the problem before the Ludington City Council, the Board of Directors for the city water utility, was in April 25, 2016 where I pondered about why AFFEW wasn't involved with the local lead issue since our kids were testing so high.
The only reply was by Councilor Kathy Winczewski, a longtime officer of AFFEW, who haughtily told me to comment on something using facts. Something she has rarely did since in defending the City of Ludington, telling the disproved whoppers that there was no lead in the COL water system and that Lowe's Hardware still sold fixtures with lead in them.
You will find me devoting a various amount of time on the lead issue in each of these nine meetings leading up to May 8, 2017 in my public comments, I was also devoting a lot of time in research and writing well-received LT articles throughout that time.
The next meeting had Julia Chambers, President of AFFEW come to the meeting, she was seeking a gaming license for AFFEW, and I brought up the lead issue for a tenth time. She and AFFEW Veep Winczewski remained silent on that issue, content in getting their permission to run a gambling event. May 22, 2017, AFFEW Gaming License
But then at the very next meeting, Julia and other members came to the council in force to pressure the council to vote for a resolution to change the pipes, not Ludington's lead pipes, but the Line Five pipeline. Multiple members spoke of the hazards of one pipe, not the hundreds of lead gooseneck pipes in the city's water system. Even though I and another mentioned their focus was poor, and that our city's pipes were a lot more hazardous. Jun 12, 2017 minutes
Three times since, I have used my valued time during council meetings to stress the importance of the mostly neglected issue of public health, even doing so just two meetings ago.
So while I am happy that AFFEW (at least the president) may finally be on board with the issue, I am disappointed that they still equate it with just a few zip codes in Flint and not their own county, where the amount of affected kids spikes in the city that is serviced by a host of old, solid lead gooseneck pipes. The AFFEW vice president can convince her fellow councilors to allow an AFFEW-lead political protest at Stearn's Beach on the Fourth of July weekend, yet can't bring herself to convince them that we have a lead problem. She tries to go the totally opposite way every time.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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Very timely topic X but try as you might there's no fixing stupid. The so called petition keeps referring to "State" and "Michigan", but no mention of Ludington. Does this group understand how ignorant they are. Are they a bunch of lonely old ladies with to much time on their hands and not enough brains to figure out what the real "World" problems are?
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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Since this article, they have changed their Facebook settings to be more private, so I hope the AFFEWsians will also read this and remember their mission, taken from the home page of their website which says: "AFFEW's mission is to provide visitors and residents with information regarding environmental issues having local importance by promoting public awareness, hosting balanced discussions, providing referral to other organizations, and sponsoring activities which promote a healthier ecosystem."
I have yet to see them address real local environment issues or try to host a balanced discussion; they avoid both like the plague. They are like most of the high schoolers of Ludington that took place in the walkout this last week, puppets of national alt-left groups who could care about Ludington issues.
I would caution you to generalize about their membership. They do have a few hen-pecked husbands and retired hippies (both sexes) in their membership in addition.
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Mayhaps, but when she suggested I made a directed personal attack last night she specified that it was "in this city hall". I wouldn't be surprised if she has sublimated some ill feelings towards me for the criticisms I have leveled at her imbalanced group of eco-geeks, or for correcting her mistaken statements at the meetings. Hey, I made a mistake too with Lenius and Lenich, but I thanked Councilor Johnson for pointing it out almost tactfully, I didn't publicly accuse him of impropriety.
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