Anthropological perspectives of groundwater quality in Southeastern Michigan

Session: Furthering Interdisciplinary Urban Groundwater Quality and Urban Sustainability Research

Colleen Linn, Wayne State University, [email protected]

Abstract

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    This study intends to understand how the political state of cities conceive of and make decisions surrounding groundwater contamination from an anthropological perspective. This research seeks to add to existent research on water insecurity that has looked at infrastructural, policy, or geographically-constrained water issues (Anand 2017, Wutich 2008, Von Schnitzler 2015). This research will draw upon ethnographic methods to broaden knowledge on societal experience and understanding surrounding contaminations and groundwater quality. The Ann Arbor dioxane plume contamination is an instance of a water controversy in Michigan that has largely affected those reliant on well water in contrast to those on a municipal piped connection. This was the result of a decades-old industrialized site that has leached into the groundwater.  By employing anthropological methods to issues of water access and contamination, we can more holistically understand community experiences during times of environmental uncertainty and precarity.