"CSUS KD"American Governments Access to clean water is not a privilege but rather a necessity. Rural areas of the United States suffer from terrible water conditions. Especially in Martin County, Kentucky, where water is unhealthy and sometimes have illegal levels of contamination because of an environmental disaster in 2000. A local coal company spilled 300 million gallons of waste coal, and chemicals, which polluted the local water supply. The Martin County Water District is in charge of solving the problems about safe water distribution, but from 2006 to 2016 the Martin County Water District showed no improvements in infrastructure and water condition. The consequences of people using this water are “severe rashes, respiratory problems, nausea and headaches that they attributed to drinking or bathing in potentially contaminated water”(Babich, 2003). The root of the problem is the failure of local political leadership and a lack of good governance. If Martin County saved money of coal severance funds as well as the state slurry disaster settlement funds for the water system, Martin County would not have this pollution on water. Governor Matt Bevin should issue the issue so that the federal government provides funding to the community in order to have safe and clean water.
In the past presidential election, Martin County was already suffering from polluted water. Some of the candidates for the presidential election mentioned the problem of water in rural communities of the United States. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders talked on his speech about contaminated water in thousands of homes in California and in other communities that aren’t able to drink clean water. Also, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton addresses the same issue with toxic water in Michigan and express concern about the situation. However, neither of these two candidates talked about the situation in Martin County, Kentucky. On the other hand, the elected president Donald Trump didn’t talk about the water problems in Martin County, but the president did express his concern about rural communities left aside and improve their living situations. The rest of the candidates of the last presidential election didn’t address this issue because it wasn’t in the public eye. Also, we need to know that Martin County is a small county with approximately 12,000 people, which means that none of the past election candidates addressed specifically Martin County water issues of such a small county. However on the state level, district state representative Chris Harris clearly asked the Republican governor Matt Bevin to declare a state of emergency in order to fix the water problem that Martin County is experiencing. We can see that mainly the Democratic Party officials want to fix Martin’s County water instead of hiding the issue. It is important to know that highest elected official in Martin County Judge-Executive Kelly Callaham, as well as governor Matt Bevin, have ignored the problem with Martin’s County water. However, the past elections, the new Judge-Executive Bill Davis understands that Martin County doesn’t have enough budget for solving their water issue. On the past month, governor Matt Bevin announced a $3.4 million project to address the water problem on Martin County, which will be helpful for installing a secondary water intake to make an improvement to the water treatment plan. Clean water is a basic need for families around the world and the United States is one of the most developed countries in the world. The problem that Martin County is experiencing is happening in other counties around the country, which makes the issue important and relevant for the 2020 election. There are several candidates for the next presidential elections that are addressing water issues. For example, Democratic Party U.S. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is making a clear statement with respect to finding solutions for clean water for all states that do not have that resource. Also, the senator Booker addressed the problem with lead contamination of the Passaic River, which will affect New Jersey’s water. Another candidate is the U.S. New York Senate Kristen Gillibrand, who has fight for maintaining the Hudson River clean. On her presidential candidacy, Senator Gillibrand states that she believes clean air and clean water are essential rights all Americans deserve–and they should never be sacrificed (Gillibrand). Also, another candidate is the US Senator Kamala D. Harris, the senator talks about the cost of having clean water is a burden to low-income families, which the candidate want to solve. Also, we have, last presidential election candidate Bernie Sanders, who also wants to improve the water condition for the state of California. Even though we see a big turnout of candidates to address the issue of water contamination, none of the candidates talks about Martin County, which is one of the counties with the worst water condition. All candidates are trying to address water pollution issues but from bigger states, which have more press rather than less known counties like Martin County.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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