Public safety, water, and the politics of greed

Deirdra Harris Glover
Managing Editor

When we think about public safety, we often fixate on crime and guns. These are vital issues that demand our attention and engagement, but must become more vigilant about the less sanguine of community concerns.

Last week, the Times-Picayune reported that a cut pipeline dumped 5300 gallons of oil in and around a Louisiana barrier island.

Last week, the Associated Press reported a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma that rattled the Midwest and asserted a link between earthquakes and drilling for oil and natural gas. Nearly 40 wells were shut down for fear of disturbing the complex networks of fault lines in Oklahoma.

Last week, a blockade against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline turned violent after contractors from Energy Transfer Partners bulldozed gravesites and prayer circles sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Reports and video surfaced from Democracy Now depicting private security using tear gas, mace and attack dogs against the multiple indigenous tribes inhabiting the Sacred Stone Camp.

The Sacred Stone Camp is the largest gathering of indigenous tribes in modern history. The media calls the presence of the Sioux and gathered indigenous peoples a protest, but the assembled tribes view it differently.

“Native Americans look at water as not just water, but as ‘life.’ So preserving water is at the base of their existence,” Kevin Holten said in the editorial section of the Bismarck Tribune.

“They are there to save the water as if it was someone they knew,” Holten said.

From the Dakotas to Deepwater Horizon, our dependency on petroleum is problematic. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook 2016, the remaining oil and bio-fuels supply will last through 2040 at our current rate of consumption.

Drilling for oil in the United States and disposing of the wastewater byproducts is destabilizing to the earth itself, and transporting oil is dangerous to land, ocean and freshwater.

As a country, we top the charts in oil use, and in producing harmful levels of emissions linked to global warming. The EIA reports 60 percent of our oil needs are fulfilled by foreign nations, many of them unstable from oil-related conflict. Our relationship with oil products is bloody, irresponsible and unsustainable.

As we draw the earth’s black blood, we simultaneously dump poison into the land, air and waters.

According to 2013 United Nations findings, 783 million people are without access to clean drinking water. The Detroit Free Press reports that lead contamination in Flint, Mich. is still prevalent enough that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was reluctant to go on record as to when the city might be able to drink unfiltered water.

According to the Clarion Ledger on Sept. 13, some residences in Jackson are still reporting elevated levels of lead, and the city’s public works is working to stabilize the pH of the water supply.

The affluent and powerful will always have the privilege to skirt these inconveniences, buying luxury automobiles with fuel cells and moving their families and businesses out of harm’s way. The repercussions of greed and negligence will always land on the shoulders of the poor, marginalized and underserved.

The Standing Rock Sioux and the peoples of the Sacred Stone Camp place their bodies between construction equipment and the sanctity of the United States’ water supply, just as families in Flint and Jackson gather to demand justice by way of safe tap water.

While these issues do not affect Jackson State, we are the future thinkers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. If we prioritize oil and wealth over water and living things, no amount of influence or money will save us. We must build a future as native elders would–thinking seven generations ahead.

Update: On September 16, Alabama and Georgia declared states of emergency following a September 9 breach of the Colonial Oil Pipeline. The leak released an estimated 250,000 gallons of oil.

The views expressed in the commentary are those of the writer(s) and in no way represent the views of The Blue & White Flash.