Markie Miller has lived almost all of her life near the shores of Lake Erie, either in Lambertville, Michigan, where she grew up, or in Toledo, where she and her husband just bought their first house. She’s too young to remember when Lake Erie caught on fire, or when it was so clogged with phosphates that it was given up for dead.
But she remembers very well the time five summers ago when cyanobacteria from giant algae blooms rendered the water in Toledo and Monroe, Michigan unfit to drink for several days. Miller, who has a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Idaho, also knows why that happened, and knows it could happen again.
Basically, it is because of agricultural runoff from the area’s farms – both from animal manure and fertilizer pouring into the water table. Miller, who by day runs an ancient venue called the Ohio Theatre, knew that there are few, if any, things more important than her beloved lake and its ecosystem. So she joined a group called Toledoans for Safe Water.
There, she helped draft a Lake Erie Bill of Rights, that begins, “We the people of the City of Toledo declare that Lake Erie and the Lake Erie watershed comprise an ecosystem upon which millions of people and countless species depend for health, drinking water and survival.”
It goes on to say that “since all power of governance is inherent in the people, we the people of the City of Toledo declare and enact this Lake Erie Bill of Rights, which establishes irrevocable rights for the Lake Erie ecosystem to exist, flourish and naturally evolve.”
The bill would allow those defending the lake to sue on its behalf. Markie and a few fellow Lake Erie advocates, including longtime environmental activist Mike Ferner, then began the difficult process of collecting more than ten thousand signatures needed. The agricultural interests and the powers that be tried to do everything they could to keep them off the ballot.
The Lucas County Board of Elections stalled on certifying their signatures, then refused to certify the bill of rights for the ballot. Markie’s group then went to the Ohio Supreme Court to try to get the Lake Erie Bill of Rights on the ballot.
They lost on a technicality, went back, and Markie, who by this time was both head organizer and press spokesman for the group, finally got to hear the high court say that the politicians on the local board of elections had no right to keep a citizens’ initiative off the ballot.
And so on Tuesday, residents of Toledo will vote on whether the lake should have rights. Opponents are spending heavily on distorted commercials designed to mislead the public about what’s really at stake. Meanwhile, Markie Miller works all day, and then frequently campaigns all night. That means retail campaigning, one voter at a time.
Toledoans for Safe Water has no money for TV spots, so this is the way are doing it, without the support of either local Democrats or Republicans. They know that even if they can pull off a win, lawsuits galore will be filed by big agricultural interests.
But they are going to keep fighting anyway. I don’t know if Markie Miller knows that Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Nor do I know if she knows that last year another 29-year-old without any money, a woman named Katie Fahey, took on the political establishment to try to end gerrymandering in Michigan, and beat the big money and the lawsuits and won by almost a million votes.
I just know that I wish that on Tuesday, I could vote in Toledo.
