Hello 〽️emphis. We interrupt this hiatus to share my last bits of time running around this city I ❤️. McKellar Lake, w/its industry, isn’t a destination many today would pick. But a thing you should know is it was once “the spot”—& its pollution is interconnected w/drinking water
Mr. Batsell Booker, retired #Memphis Fire Battalion Chief is the one who told me about McKellar being the spot back in the day. I went deep in the archives because it’s so hard to imagine. But it was such a part of city life, The CA had a Boating Editor commercialappeal.com/story/news/202…
Also pictured above is the Stone Soul Picnic gospel music festival. When it first launched at MLK Riverside Park on the McKellar waterfront in the 70s, the festival drew 55,000. There was also once a Ms. McKellar Lake beauty contest (& wow do those creepy write ups not age well)
What hasn’t changed: + The appearance of oil sheens on the water; an occasional mass fish kill + Citizen demands officials step up to protect a natural resource; this time with the stakes raised to the Memphis Sand drinking water aquifer What has changed: + Scientific research
The map above comes from Sagar Pandit of @CAESER_UofM, showing rivers + some of the breaches in a clay layer that largely separates shallow groundwater from the #MemphisSand drinking water aquifer further below + well fields from which drinking water is pumped.
CAESER scientists & students are in the midst of a 5-year, $5 million study of threats to drinking water quality - the outcome of a City vote & monthly surcharge paid by customers of the publicly-owned utility. This is where I come in w/the records request documentcloud.org/documents/2070…
& plowing thru EPA Toxic Release Inventory + Risk Screening Environmental Indicators data. Because: + Rivers leak water to the aquifer, CAESER is studying + They're barred from freely talking abt that + Same rivers receive tons of toxic pollution epa.gov/rsei
It takes some work to marry which facilities are putting what into which streams exactly & the related risks to human health of each release. Some of that info comes from the RSEI link above. Some from TRI data here epa.gov/toxics-release… BUT in general, these dashboards are....
....are great places to start if you want to look at surface water pollution where you live
But back to Memphis, where if you track #EnvironmentalJustice you'll have heard about the movement that took on the #ByhaliaPipeline's route atop the aquifer & thru Black communities. Those plans may be cancelled, but legislation being voted on today has eyes on the big picture
^ as described by @Justinjpearson, co-founder of @MemphisCAP_org, filmed by my colleague @Ray_Padilla_ at Horn Lake Cutoff in southwest Memphis. If you wanna go further in the details, hope you’ll check out the article—& keep in touch. I’m moving but always have ❤️ for Memphis.