Media Advisory: With Joliet and Surrounding Communities Projected To Deplete Local Aquifers In Coming Years, National Advocates Convene To Discuss Water Access and Environmental Justice
Tuesday’s discussion follows a press conference in Joliet urging the Joliet City Council to Consider a Graduated Water Rate for Industrial Users Including Amazon and Other Mega-Corporations
Joliet — Advocates from across the country will convene to discuss strategies in the fight for water affordability and environmental justice as municipalities across the country struggle with preserving water quality and affordability. Less than a hundred miles from the Great Lakes, it’s communities like Joliet and Flint that are suffering through senseless water issues despite their proximity to the world’s largest bodies of freshwater.
Over the past two decades, Joliet has grown into the Midwest capital of warehousing, attracting the state’s first Amazon warehouses while also attracting other major corporations including Union Pacific, Mars, Home Depot and Ikea to the city.
The economic strategy of limitless warehouse development has contributed to the depletion of the local aquifers and now local residents are facing the stark reality of water costs tripling (or more) as the city plans a billion-dollar-plus water pipeline to Lake Michigan. Meanwhile, the city continues to advance the proposed Northpoint development which is itself projected to consume an additional half-million gallons per day once it is operational.
“The situation in Joliet, Detroit and Flint is a harbinger for an expanding water crisis across the country,” said Yana Kalmyka, Labor and Environmental Justice Director at Warehouse Workers for Justice. “We need policies locally and federally that help and protect residents, but we also need to make the biggest corporate water users pay their fair share. In our case, that list includes major warehouse operators like Amazon.”
SPEAKERS:
- Moderator, Roberto Clack, Warehouse Workers for Justice
- Andre Viddaure, People’s Collective for Environmental Justice
- Mary Grant, Food and Water Watch
- Joliet City Councilman Cesar Guerrero
- Monica Lewis-Patrick, We The People of Detroit
WHO: Warehouse Workers for Justice, Food and Water Watch, People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, We The People of Detroit, Joliet City Councilman Cesar Guerrero, Illinois Green New Deal Network, Always Essential Coalition, Athena Coalition
WHAT: Water for All: Protecting Water Access and Affordability
WHEN: Tuesday, November 30th, 12pm
PRESS CONTACTS: Roberto Clack 312.450.1972, roberto@warehouseworker.org and Yana Kalmyka, 347.930.9516, yana@warehouseworker.org
Livestream: The rally will be livestreamed on the Warehouse Workers for Justice Facebook page.
Based in Joliet, Illinois, Warehouse Workers for Justice is a worker center fighting for stable, living-wage jobs in warehouses and distribution centers. We educate workers about labor rights, teach folks how to enforce their rights, organize in the workplace and community and fight for public and private policies that promote full-time work at decent wages in the warehouse industry.
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