A new study suggests a number of minority American neighborhoods are at risk of having unhealthier water than their white counterparts.
By Francie Diep
(Photo: Cate Gillon/Getty Images)
Walk through an unincorporated stretch of Wake County outside Raleigh, North Carolina, and it might look just as dense and developed as the town proper. But there’s an important, invisible difference: Folks there may not have access to the city’s municipal water system. Instead, their homes draw from private wells and septic tanks.
While not all unincorporated Wake County communities lack piped water, those that have a larger black population are more likely to depend on wells and septic tanks, according to a 2014 study. “They were excluded probably for historical reasons, during the Jim Crow era,” says University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill environmental researcher Jackie MacDonald Gibson, the leader of the 2014 study.
Now, MacDonald Gibson has a new study that demonstrates the toll that history has had on residents’ health. The kitchen tap water in majority-black Wake County communities that depend on wells is more than 50 times more likely to contain coliform bacteria — and more than 700 times more likely to contain E. coli — than the municipal water that’s available to majority-white neighborhoods just next door.
The presence of coliform bacteria and E. coli indicates that the water has been contaminated with sewage, which can make people seriously ill. If these neighborhoods had municipal water, MacDonald Gibson and her colleague Frank Stillo estimate that the number of annual emergency room visits for gastrointestinal illnesses in these areas would drop by more than one-fifth.
But leaders both in the city and in unincorporated neighborhoods have been reluctant to extend water service, citing costs, according to a surveypublished last year. “I think there’s a lack of awareness of the water quality problem in these wells,” MacDonald Gibson says. The effective result is that Wake County’s black residents bear a disproportionate burden of gastrointestinal disease there.
This may not be a problem only in North Carolina. Studies have shown that other majority-white Southern towns have refused to annex surrounding, majority-black neighborhoods and to extend municipal services to them. The practice is so common that it has a name: underbounding. Researchers have also documented towns underbounding Hispanic neighborhoods in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande and California’s Central Valley.
Poor communities of color in the United States have often had to deal with more pollution than their richer, whiter counterparts. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, taught us that one way such environmental injustice happens is when officials make poor decisions and ignore residents’ complaints. Wake County shows that underbounding, whether new or historical, might be another way.
Though it’s common knowledge among environmental researchers that well water is often riskier than municipal water, most politicians and community members are not familiar with the dangers. With this new data in hand, perhaps city officials will finally have the information they need to justify the expense of expanding their municipal water system.
Our
survival depends on us coming together. To put aside our differences, and
ego’s for difficult times are ahead. At times we have to follow,
but know when to lead.
CDS.
CEO. BEMA
Congratulations to BEMA
International\Lifetime\Nigeria member Ibarakumo B. Walson for completing the Ethics
of Humanitarian Work conducted by EDD Integrated Services Ltd,
Nigeria, November 10, 2016.
Ibarakumo is with the Nigerian National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA, http://nema.gov.ng/ ) assigned
to the Delta Region and has been a member of BEMA since 2014. As I do
with all members of BEMA we converse by telephone whenever possible.
Thank you for such outstanding work you’re
doing for the Delta and Nigeria in planning, preparing, and responding to both
man-made and natural disasters.
Special
Offer:
Because of
your dedication I shall offer 2 FREE International\Lifetime\Nigeria membership
to any of your coworkers that you recommend.
To stress
the importance of us coming together for a common
goal within the diaspora 2 FREE International\Lifetime memberships in BEMA will
be offered to any member of disaster\emergency office\agency\ministry of the
member nations of the Africa Union from November 11, 2016 to December 31, 2016.
Thank you
for giving the incentive to evolve toward an African Descent NGO for
humanitarian aid, disaster response, recovery, and self-sustainability for our
communities. Enough is enough. The Time for Change is Now.
Ibarakumo, Peace be unto you and your family.
Charles
Charles D. Sharp
Chief Executive Officer
Black Emergency Managers Association
1231 Good Hope Road S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20020
Office: 202-618-9097
bEMA
Cooperation, Collaboration,
Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and Partnering (C5&P)
HBCUs,,,,I can't recall if many have setup a pipeline for graduates of even a neighboring community college to attend your campuses with direct admission.
Basic, simple AA degrees should get others in. Also has been an issue with transfer of credits from one institution to another. Interesting.
Tuesday, December 6,
2016, 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Breakfast
will be available at 9:00 a.m.
Urban Institute
2100 M Street NW, 5th floor
Washington, DC 20037
Community
colleges, which enroll more than 40 percent of postsecondary students,
continue to gain prominence in discussions of public policies for higher
education and job training. In 2010, the federal government invested $2
billion in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s community colleges to build
capacity and spur innovation in job training. Proposals for free tuition
at community colleges have gained national attention. A significant
share of the Pell grant expansion has benefited community college students. Community
colleges serve large numbers of academically underprepared students with
fewer resources than any other sector of higher education. This has
exacerbated their challenges in increasing completion rates and meeting
industry needs. This panel will
focus on the emerging issues facing community colleges since the Great
Recession. The discussion will highlight variation among institutions and
differences across state systems, along with tested policy and
institutional solutions that bolster student success and economic
development. Panelists will discuss findings from two new Urban Institute
briefs.
David Baime, senior vice president for government relations
and policy analysis, American Association of Community Colleges
Sandy Baum,
senior fellow, Income and Benefits Policy Center, Urban Institute
Lauren Eyster, senior research associate, Income and Benefits
Policy Center, Urban Institute
Dan Phelan,
president, Jackson College
David Wessel, director, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and
Monetary Policy; senior fellow in Economic Studies, Brookings
Institution (moderator)
Breakfast
will be available at 9:00 a.m. The program will begin promptly at 9:30
a.m. For inquiries regarding
this event, please contact events@urban.org.
"We have to come together within the diaspora to heal our trauma to make the evolutionary jump to the next phase of our developement within the U.S., Caribbean, Africa, and throughout the diaspora. To come together with one loud voice to say , NO MORE". Can we come together as one? CDS.
On Wednesday, November 9, 2016 during my recovery from the
recent Presidential Election while in the BEMA office I had the unique
opportunity of attending the preview screening of ‘Black America Since MLK, And Still I Rise’, a new documentary by
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. co-produced by WETA and Premiers November 15 & 22 at
8 p.p. on your local PBS station. (http://www.pbs.org/video/2365856620/
)
The Black Emergency Managers Association (BEMA) office is
located in one of the areas still containing a majority of black community
residents, and organizations within South East Washington, D.C. Our office location is shared with other black
small businesses from practically each blue and white collar professions in or
community co-located in the Anacostia Arts Center on Good Hope Road, S.E.
Being located in this community, and at the Anacostia Arts
Center has given me the opportunity to experience all aspects of life in our
communities. As a Washingtonian I have seen
the progress and setbacks in our communities from the demonstration marches for
equality and riots of the 60’s following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King as a child. The Vietnam War
protests in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
The introduction of psychotropic drugs, mass usage of heroin, angel
dust, cocaine and crack cocaine that flooded and destroyed multiple generations
within our communities. The mass exodus
of families from the inner city area to the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia
seeking better schools, homes, and job.
Please schedule a time to view the airing of this documentary, or
record and view at a later time with family and friends. Consider how far we have come in the last 50
to 60 years.
Have we evolved and made the evolutional jump to take us to the next
phase of our development socially, politically, and financially?
Have we taken 5-steps forward only to simply to take 7-steps back.
Other questions will arise as you view this documentary. For we have to plan, and prepare individually,
for our families, and our communities.
Something we may have lost.
Think of BEMA, Black Lives Matter, the Black Panther Party
and why each has a unique goal of bringing our communities together to address
an old unresolved issue, current issues, and issues in the future.
Peace be unto each of you, and your families.
Sincerely,
Charles D. Sharp
Charles D. Sharp
Chief Executive Officer
Black Emergency Managers
Association
1231 Good Hope Road S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20020
Office: 202-618-9097
bEMA
Cooperation, Collaboration,
Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and Partnering (C5&P)
