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 29, 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 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 area farms – both from animal manure and fertilizer pouring into the water table. Miller, who a few months ago was running an ancient old movie palace, knew that there are few, if any, things more important than her beloved lake and its ecosystem. So a couple of years ago, she joined a group called Toledoans for Safe Water.
There, she helped draft a Lake Erie Bill of Rights, which 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 adds 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.”
It was designed to allow those defending the lake to sue on its behalf. Markie and a few fellow Lake Erie advocates and environmental activists 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, once they admitted they had enough, refused to certify the bill for the ballot. Markie’s group then went to the Ohio Supreme Court. 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.
The politicians and lobbyists did all they could to stop it. BP, the giant oil and gas conglomerate, spent more than $300,000 on misleading commercials, and hired Dick Cheney’s daughter to run their campaign.
Toledoans for Safe Water barely had enough for a few leaflets. The city held the election on a cold day in February, when college kids would be away at school and the odds were against them.
Turnout was indeed small. But the Lake Erie Bill of Rights won — by a landslide. Stunned, agricultural interests from out of town immediately filed a lawsuit to try and stop it. Toledoans for Safe Water still has to fight for what they achieved, but they have a bigger platform now.
The day after the election, Markie got a phone call asking her to come and speak about the rights of nature – to the United Nations.
She could scarcely believe it – but it was true. Today, she is working for CELDF, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and still fighting for her beloved lake.
I don’t know if Markie Miller knows that she is exactly the same age as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, or 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.
Nor do I know if she 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.”
But I do know that she and her friends have proven that is still true.
Editor’s Note: You can hear both this essay and my interview with Markie Miller on my podcast on the Zing media network. And please subscribe to my YouTube channel!
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