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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2018)
Street Roots • April 27-May 3, 2018 News Page 7 WATER, from page 5 PORTLAND’S PROPOSED WATER water. Out of that, we quickly learned how big ‘W e know that Portland is in an and massive this city is; it’s over 139 square miles, the transportation being very spokesperson Jaymee Cut! told Street compromised. We figured out that we not Roots. W e also know that a sudden only needed to make sure we were creating emergency hits lower-income customers water spaces for people to pick up water but much harder.” then recognize the aging population and some of the transportation challenges. We Her bureau, along with the Bureau of then created what we call “water droppers.” These were people that delivered water to piggyback on the same bill to ratepayers, persons that are homebound, sick, or people in the 2018 city that may not have transportation or may low- have several children and find it difficult to get to a water station. in February (news. Out of that work, we recognized people streetroots.org/waterassistance), were questioning the quality of the water, so finding that while in 1995, Portland’s water then we partnered with Michigan State University and did a project that we just bureau became one of the first in the finished the second leg of in November to nation to offer a low-income discount test the quality of water in Detroit because program to residents, it never met its goal we d been told by the EPA that water could be tested anywhere in the state of Michigan but Detroit. That sends a message to grass foil roots that there definitely has to be something wrong if you can test water anywhere in the state of Michigan but program to low-income households would Detroit, being that that’s the largest city in do: Michigan. Establish a dedicated low-income The third thing that we found was, we services learn to provide customer convened our own table of community-based service, data gathering and analysis. researchers, and we had some of the top experts across the country, 67 of them in total; they represented all kinds of them to be indebted, which then causes institutions of higher learning that are them to lose their property. As many of the convened under our jurisdiction, so anything created in collaboration with them is already households that we analyzed in 2015 that went into foreclosure, the majority of those controlled by the community and, of course, owed approximately $1,900 in debt, and We The People of Detroit. We hold this data many of their homes sold for $16,000 to on behalf of the community. $18,000 per household, but dollars that There’s been over 100,000 persons shut were intended through the stimulus package off from water. We to keep Detroiters in have litigated against their homes the city eight times should’ve paid back now, and we have water bills and back- "Dollars th at were istfemlesl won each of those th r e a t I t the stlsmslias paefeag e to taxes. It is now being pieces of litigation. levied to entice a keep Detroiters In their homes The water younger, whiter department continues s ìd b I Ì w paid hack-water bills population to move to redact information, and bacirfaies« It Is stow be into the city. You which causes us to won’t give me, a ing levied to entice a younger^ have to continue to resident, who has whiter population to m o w Into pursue more stayed and paid in the c lty /? litigation. We were this city assistance to involved in another stay in the city, many action where there’s times needing less been over 100,000 than $2,000, but households illegally then you’ll provide $20,000 to $80,000 for foreclosed on, which is another tactic to another person to move into the city that is force people out of the city. Many of these actually coming in as a new resident. persons are low-income persons, but they are paying as much as 80 to 90 percent E.G.: You’re coming to Portland to talk above the market rate for what they should about the situation in Detroit. Why should be paying for their taxes. what is happening in Michigan matter to It’s these kind of measures along with the Portlanders? What can we learn from your fact the high rate of water has been used as experiences? another weapon to place that debt on top of M.L.P.: Hopefully what Portland will learn the tax laws, which creates a situation for is that we’re sort of the canary in the mine low-income people that makes it unbearable for other communities that we believe are because it makes it where their taxes are going to fall prey to this kind of austerity. not affordable, and then on top of that, the We actually knew in 2013 that Puerto Rico unaffordability of water, which is causing Don't foroet to check up onlu b WO t S âKa wz W from page 5 crisis vouchers is io help a household get through an unexpected life event. Expand income requirements to better align with Portland incomes. to 80 percent for households in poverty. For example, a four-person family earning below $22,000 annually would pay commercial systems for reusing their greywater for irrigation, as long as they obtain the proper permits. Cahill said Portland’s source, “ a Provide up to $500 assistance annually to low-income customers living in multi- Hinas. Utilit rental bilis are already included in rent. This rental assistance program would cut down on administrative costs and eliminate the need for the Water Bureau to create a Portland City Council and Mayor Ted Wheeler are currently considering these was going to be next. Many of the same players that are a part of what happened in Detroit - everybody from the DeVos family, who is deeply benefiting from the charterizing of public education - they’re a part of privatizing water, also privatizing transportation, large airports; they’re also a part of privatizing trash collection. We believe these players need to be called out and identified. The second-largest law firm in the world has been a major actor in representing the banks that are benefiting from this austerity. There is an article called “The New Water Barons” (globalresearch.ca), and what you’ll find in that article is many of the banks that were protected during the bankrupting of Detroit are the same banks that are buying up the aqua fillers around the globe. What I am hoping we can show is that not only some of the information and the wisdom we’ve learned over the course of this struggle but also that we can begin to look for solutions in terms of how to unite our struggles so we are not continuing to fall prey to these kind of austerity measures so we are beginning to build collective power across the nation and hopefully eventually around the world. We believe that people should come first. We know that water is a human right. We also know people must fight for that right. Kaitlyn Dey, Street Roots social work intern, provided the transcription of this interview. ss o i l I S © II© W S o i l 3 « Two years later, Oregon Legislature Ms « M M m a« é A » w o l i t i O i SUUS? ' ; '% WF « S W aa ■ « a O ì SS ì S ì W sk < i. as a reservoir. According to Cuti, the Portland Water Bureau has “49 specific mitigation measures the city will undertake over a temperature and habitat impacts” in the Bull Run Watershed. But, she added, “because the watershed is used for drinking water, a 147-square mile area is creating one of the most protected natural areas in the state.” Cahill also pointed out that Portland’s back-up source, the Columbia South Shore Well Field aquifer, could one day be ’ region’s groundwater from the Hanford Site. In response to this concern, Cuti stated, “Portland’s aquifers are separated from the groundwater at Hanford by hundreds of miles and the CascadeRange. The Columbia River could potentially be affected by groundwater contamination at Hanford, but the river is not the primary source of recharge to the aquifers Portland uses for drinking water. Those two factors effectively prevent groundwater at Cahill said her organization is not suggesting that Portland will ever stop using water from Bull Run or the Columbia wells, but, she argues, “we should be making a plan for resiliency that diversifies our water sources and greywater and blackwater reuse is one of those sources in cities that should be seriously considered. San Francisco is now requiring water reuse in all buildings over 250,000 square feet Portland should do the same or better.” She said there are already some utilize greywater in Portland, such as Hassalo on Eighth. This grouping of three luxury apartment buildings has a system that treats and recycles 100 water per day from entering the city’s community water processing system in TO M B fllM B ô Ô W
