Newsletter
End of Year Summary Report 2023
Mining
Oil Pipeline Impacts
Potash Mining
Water Affordability
Water Grabs
Authored by
Newsletter: Winter 2023-2024
MCWC has managed to survive the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, we have found ourselves in a much different climate as a non-profit, all volunteer organization than we experienced before 2019. We are not unique in this respect. The Pandemic affected us all, and has been accompanied by a number of other significant challenges that have occupied the limelight with the media and the public in general for at least the last six years — climate change, wars, treats to democracy, rising injustices such as racism, homophobia, white nationalism, poverty, the increasing power of corporations over government and environment.
The victories we have managed in the realm of water conservation and water justice have been consistently smothered by the magnitude of these existential challenges. But they are there never the less. So are we. We have lost some of our key leaders, however. Our “staff” has shrunk and those who remain are aging and often facing health challenges themselves. The young ones are working long hours at paid jobs or school. It is the same with every organization, all of us trying to recruit new talent in a climate of uncertainty and economic upheaval.
The problems remain. The attacks on our public infrastructures, our waters and our lands have not gone away. MCWC is still trying to figure out how to get Nestle/Blue Triton out of our streams and aquifers, and someday out of our state. Meanwhile the ecosystems are still being damaged with the sanction of the state. The so-called potash company from Colorado is still trying to gain the investment money and permits from the state to start construction of a mine in central Michigan which would destroy 100 square miles of land and waters. The people of southeast Michigan, and now the entire state, are still trying to get a water affordability plan adopted so all have access to clean affordable water and a strong public infrastructure to deliver it. The Line 5 pipeline still runs under the Straits and the tunnel is still oh the table. Our work is by no means finished. We have slowed the corporate predators down, held them at bay, but we have not yet stopped them. We definitely need a boost in resources and personnel to keep up these battles. Persistence of our allies in California and Maine has produced some recent victories. We have also begun to see progress in Michigan. There is so much more work that is urgent.
We need to take the time to rebuild our organization and recover our strength so we can continue to be a unique organization with a track record worthy of our time and your support. That process has been given an important stimulus in the form of a gift from a member of MCWC who passed in January of 2023.