In this clip from our first Working Water policy workshop, Litigation Director of the National Environmental Law Center and MIT Lecturer Charles Caldart tells the story of the the Safe Drinking Water Act, and where we are today.

In this clip, Legislative Director at the AWWA Tommy Holmes dives deeper into the challenges and debates surrounding drinking water, starting from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This talk followed Charles Caldart's talk about the history of the SDWA in our first Working Water policy workshop.

In this clip from our second workshop in the Working Water policy series, former Mayor of Lansing Virg Bernero recounts the story of how the lead in water issue emerged and how the city of Lansing pushed to become one of the first US cities to completely replace their lead service lines, which may pose a serious threat to drinking water safety and human health.

In this clip, ProPublica journalist Anna Clark tells the story of Flint, MI, the series of decisions and injustices that lead to its lead crisis, and what implications this has for the future of water and health in the US. This talk followed Virg Bernero's from earlier in the workshop.

In this workshop, our speakers addressed the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, especially marginalized communities, in the development, implementation, and enforcement of water policy. Ibrahim López-Hernández, Climate Justice Organizer at GreenRoots and Caleb Rogers, City Councilman in Williamsburg, VA, explored environmental justice and talked about their work at the local level.

In this workshop, our speakers addressed the history of the “Environmental Justice Movement”; highlighted federal environmental justice priorities under the Biden/Harris Administration; provided a status of federal environmental justice legislation recently passed or being considered by Congress; highlight national environmental justice issues relating to water quality and access to clean water; and discussed WE ACT’s agenda with respect to national legislation and advocacy campaigns. We heard from Jose Almanzar, an Associate in Beveridge & Diamond’s New York office and co-chair of the Environmental Justice Committee for the New York State Bar Association’s Environmental & Energy Law Section and Dana Johnson, Director of the Federal Policy Office for WE ACT For Environmental Justice (“WE ACT”).

Resources shared at the workshop:

Slides from Jose Almanzar on EJ basics

EOs on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad

Clean Water For All Report

WE ACT – 2021 Federal Policy Agenda

Environmental Justice Leadership Forum - Green Jobs Report

Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing

Principles of Environmental Justice (Created in October 1991)

Communication is instantly more effective when we follow one simple rule: put the audience first. This workshop focused on a stakeholder-focused paradigm for communicating work related to civil and environmental engineering projects. Learn about approaches to understand stakeholder needs and concerns, employ appropriate methods of communication, and foster a desire to create a sense of shared understanding. Jennie Perey Saxe, PhD, an Assistant Professor of environmental engineering at the University of Delaware, provided insights informed by over a decade in the public sector and guided participants through an interactive communication activity.

In this workshop, we learned more about how Flint’s dramatic events unfolded from a science-policy perspective. Our speakers, Shashank Agarwal (MIT Mechanical Engineering) and Kaylee McCormack (MIT Chemical Engineering) developed a holistic understanding of the Flint water crisis and explored the various scientific, historical, sociological, administrative, and policy reasons that together led to this environmental crisis. Our speakers also evaluated the aftermath of Flint crisis in terms of the governmental response by focusing on the latest developments in lead service line replacements in Flint and the EPA's Lead and Copper Rule.