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.