Check out these two stories that appeared on Echo recently. One is this piece by Gary Wilson about privatizing public water service in Chicago. The other is this piece by Kari Lydersen about the Kennecott mine proposal in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
They don’t appear to have much in common. One is commentary on a big city urban issue. The other is a news report on an environmental controversy in a more rural setting.
The similarity: Both have to do with the privatization of a public resource — water. Wilson’s piece tying the mayoral contest to privatizing Chicago water service is obvious. Perhaps the privatization angle for the mining proposal is less so.
But we believe privatization happens anytime a public resource like water may be altered or affected by private economic activity.
There are certainly plenty of battles over whether the tradeoff of water privatization is in the public interest. But such a conversion should not go unnoted. We believe it is an important issue to get before the public
You’re seeing more of that kind of water privatization coverage on Echo. Some examples:
- Great Lakes tributary dredged; climate change to spur more?
- Future of Michigan automated water permit tool in doubt
- Waukesha water diversion key to Great Lakes diversion policy
That’s not only because we think such stories are important. Heck, there are lots of important issues we can’t cover. But we can report on this one 
because we have a little help from the Park Foundation. It awarded Echo a grant to pursue news stories about water privatization.
Park isn’t telling us what to cover and how to cover it. The foundation doesn’t vet our stories prior to publication. Think of it as underwriting a water privatization beat rather than sponsoring any particular story.
It’s important for you to know this. For we at Echo are not only experimenting with alternative methods of delivering news, we’re also investigating methods of supporting such coverage in a nonprofit setting.
And of course you should know where our support comes from.
I can assure you that our funders do not have editorial control here at Echo. It’s up to you whether you want to believe that. The best that I can do is lay our cards on the table as we join many others in searching for ways to support credible environmental reporting in a vastly fractionated media landscape.
Figuring out how to finance journalism is an immense challenge that many people are trying to address. As a reminder, right now much of Echo’s support comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which supports reporting by graduate assistants.
It also comes from Michigan State University. Coursework produced by the university’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism sometimes shows up on Echo.
These are important pieces of sustaining our environmental reporting. And we’re grateful to Park for adding another.
Echo Editor David Poulson is the associate director of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.
With elected officials around the country facing pressure to close mounting budget deficits, attention to the issue of water privatization is critical. As Gary Wilson pointed out in his commentary on the situation in Chicago, water is a basic human right. When it is treated as a commodity, our democracy, health, and environment suffers. The city has a chance to invest in its future and be a leader for the country by rejecting the shortsighted promises of water privatization. An amazing public resource like the Great Lakes must not be opened to corporate greed and commoditization. Newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a great opportunity to leave his mark on Chicago by committing to its public water systems, and mayors across the country should be choosing to invest in their public water systems to ensure equitable access to high quality water for all citizens.
One central argument often overlooked by pro-water privatization arguments is that investment in public water is great for the economy, especially in tough budget times. Every dollar invested in water and sewer infrastructure increases GDP in the long-term by $6.35 and every job added in the water and sewer industry creates nearly four additional jobs in the national economy, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The work of groups like Great Lakes Echo, bringing key issues and stories to light, and the Think Outside the Bottle campaign with Corporate Accountability International, working with hundreds of mayors across the country to ensure public control of water, are two examples of important work around water privatization. Control of water is one of the most important issues facing this generation, and we must use many strategies to expose the dangerous consequences of water privatization and work to assure democratic control of our most essential public resource.
John Skinner
Corporate Accountability International
The link is now fixed.
broken link on the the gary wilson story!