Now What? Addressing Public Health & The Drinking Water Crisis: Race, Rates and Infrastructure Peter J. Hammer Professor of Law and Director Damon J Keith Center for Civil Rights Wayne State University Law School All About Water March 19, 2018

Infrastructure Through the Water Access and Health Lens – Meeting Goals: Bring together funders, policy organizations and on-the-ground practitioners for a day of learning and relationship-building to inform local, state, regional, and national advocacy efforts to improve water safety, access, and efficiency of water infrastructure. Develop specific, shared actions that participants can take to move water affordability and health decisions after the meeting.

First provocative claim . . . . The changes necessary to improve water safety, access, and efficiency of water infrastructure and to move water affordability and health decisions are similar to the changes necessary to address structural racism and advance racial equity Public health provides a frame that can advance racial equity Racial equity provides a frame that can advance public health

First provocative claim . . . . Understanding structural racism functions as a social MRI diagnosing the root causes of un-clean, un-safe and un-affordable water in urban areas BUT: We need a more common analysis to forge a collaborative movement Focus on Race, Rates and Infrastructure Key Question: What determines the social and economic determinants of health?

What determines health? Biomedical Public Health Social & Economic Determinants (environment) Racial Equity & Justice (transforming infrastructure)

Second provocative claim . . . Spatial-Structural Racism lies at the heart of endemic water unaffordability and quality problems Strategic Racism lies at the heart of the Flint Water Crisis, the Detroit-Flint Water Shutoffs, the theft of the DWSD and the creation of GLWA Strategic racism => manipulation of the forces of express, unconscious and/or structural racism for public or private gain (regardless of racial animus) Structural racism creates the vulnerability Strategic racism exploits the vulnerability Clean, safe affordable water is not possible without the conscious and intentional pursuit of racial equity

Structuralized Racialization (Verb) Intentional (Express) Structural White Supremacy (Privilege) Implicit Bias

What determines where we live? What if people were gas molecules? What social, economic and political forces shape demographic patterns? Importance of spatial perspectives The spatialization of race The racialization of space The past did not go anywhere (archeology of racism) Relationship between race, rates and infrastructure

America’s untold histories . . . .

Address structural racism and health through the same frame Mapping Opportunity Michigan Roundtable-Kirwan Institute Opportunity Mapping (2008) Defining Opportunity Housing Employment Schooling Health Transportation Food security Living environment

Segregation wealth & opportunity

Spatial Racism in S.E. Michigan

Impacts every social policy issue Environmental justice Water quality Public Transportation Access to health care Physical safety Quality of schools Job opportunities Childhood asthma Municipal distress Social services Water rates Childhood obesity Emergency Management Infant mortality Water shutoffs Tax foreclosures Life expectancy Mass incarceration

Social reproduction of Spatial-Structural Racism 1920’s-1950’s segregated space inside cities Detroit: Black Bottom and Paradise Valley Flint: Floral Park and St. John Street 1960’s-1970’s transition Containment breached at the edges Racialized panic and “blockbusting” Escalating white flight 1980’s-present segregated space reproduced at the regional level Entire cities like Detroit and Flint function as racialized space surrounded by wealthy suburbs What does this mean for water infrastructure?

Spatial Racism in S.E. Michigan

Segregated differences in job loss Flint-Genesee County 1998-2013 http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/stephen-henderson/2016/02/20/how-job-loss-and-isolation-help-keep-flint-poor/80199226/

Race, rates and Infrastructure

Race, rates and infrastructure Municipal distress in cities like Detroit and Flint are grounded in a history of spatial-structural racism Spatial-structural racism lies at the heart of water quality issues and water un-affordability in Flint and Detroit Strategic racism and Emergency Management lie at the heart of the Flint Water Crises, water shutoffs, the theft of DWSD and the creation of the GLWA Only the intentional use of a racial equity frame can lead to sustainable change

Spatial-Structural racism causes municipal distress Spatial-Structural Racism is the root cause of Detroit’s & Flint’s municipal distress mediated by Collapse of property market and property tax revenue Regional division, deindustrialization and the collapse of manufacturing tax base and income tax revenue Declining state revenue sharing Proper response: increased revenue sharing and address root causes of racial inequity Actual Response: Emergency Management (austerity not resources) Municipal distress as archeological evidence of structural racism Structural racism created the vulnerability – Strategic racism exploits the vulnerability

Spatial-Structural racism causes water affordability and quality crisis Detroit and Flint water systems are old, poorly maintained and built for cities with two to three times the population Legacy of white flight and spatial racism Cities can get caught in a rate death-spiral, where high fixed costs are spread over fewer and fewer payers Present system is unjust and unsustainable Proper response: regional water affordability plans Actual response: water shutoffs Failed infrastructure as archeological evidence of structural racism

Strategic racism caused the Flint Water Crisis Emergency Manager displaced democracy and KWA gamed political processes to gain approval for their pipeline KWA manipulated bond finance rules to raise money for the pipeline, but no external money was raised to upgrade the water treatment plant The water started flowing before all necessary upgrades were made The city was poisoned and the complaints of residents were ignored

Strategic racism created GLWA . . . What does the real DWSD ledger look like? What is value of DWSD as an asset? How much wealth did DWSD create in the suburbs? Note: DWSD was limited to cost recovery in its wholesale rates Why no Grander Bargain? Bankruptcy lets you break and renegotiate contracts. Why not? Break existing regional water contracts Renegotiate water contracts to increase revenue and reflect national water rates Create sustainable regional revenue sharing structure

Strategic racism created GLWA . . . Instead of a “Grander Bargain,” Emergency Manager used bankruptcy to spin off DWSD into GLWA Remove management and control from Detroit GLWA created without just compensation for Detroit GLWA leaves Detroit a rate base and aged infrastructure that is unsustainable Missed opportunity for a regional revenue sharing system anchored in notions of equity

Where do we go from here? A racial equity analysis is essential to evaluating the nature of the water problems and the viability of water solutions Practical roads ahead Water affordability Re-negotiate GLWA deal Health in all policies Racial equity impact statements Use racial equity as a frame to transform social institutions and physical infrastructure

Transforming institutions and infrastructure What determines the social and economic determinates of health? Spatial-Structural-Strategic racism have defined the institutions and infrastructure that define our state Need new visions and values Racial equity Sustainability Fairness Justice Beloved Community

What determines health? Biomedical Public Health Social & Economic Determinants (environment) Racial Equity & Justice (transforming infrastructure)

Additional references Peter J. Hammer, “The Flint Water Crisis, KWA and Strategic-Structural Racism,” (2016) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2812171 Peter J. Hammer, “Dear Judge Rhodes: Evaluation of the Expert Report of Martha E. M. Kopacz Regarding the Feasibility of the City of Detroit Plan of Adjustment,” 17 Journal of Law in Society 19 (2015)

Thank you! “Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Questions?

Thank you! “Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”