"Colorado River Water Contamination Is Impacting Certain Groups More: Report" Article Reflection No. 165 (12/22/2025)

Article: “Colorado River Water Contamination Is Impacting Certain Groups More: Report”  

Reflection: 

In the Newsweek article  “Colorado River Water Contamination Is Impacting Certain Groups More: Report,” journalist Jasmine Laws discusses a new essay from “Colorado River Insights, 2025: Dancing with Deadpool”---a report from the Colorado River Research Group. The article explains how the essay corroborates the racial minorities’ suffering under environmental injustices. The essay also describes how historically marginalized groups continue to face the negative impacts of unfinished water access in households, underground storage tanks that do not function well, and the shortage of green space. The article also features interviews from experts in the field who discuss environmental marginalization of Black, Native American, and Hispanic communities. 

One of the parts from this article that stuck to me most is what Wayne State University law professor and Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights director Peter Hammer said about how “‘it is not surprising’” to observe historically marginalized groups have less green space—a disadvantage—than groups that were less marginalized in history. He repeated that phrase twice, with the second time referring to dysfunctional underground storage tanks and how they are more problematic among lower-income communities in the minority. I agree with Professor Hammer—the patterns that are seen in history seem to, in one way or another, tie back to this idea of a continuous marginalization. I wonder which groups have been most historically marginalized, and why. Also, why is it that lower-income groups seem to continuously be at a lasting disadvantage when it comes to environmental injustice? Isn’t safety a foundational component of what people naturally should have access to? I wish society had a more equitable playing field.