Within the last three years, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has faced a very public grilling by lawmakers such as Reps. Katie Porter and Jamie Raskin.

DeJoy has had to answer countless questions about the future of the U.S. Mail delivery. Many of the proposed changes involve closing down some processing centers and having mail trucked to another consolidation center farther away.

Such ideas may seem good at first glance but fail under constant scrutiny of reality. Take for instance the Upper Peninsula Processing Facility in Kingsford, Michigan. This facility processes the mail for the entire upper peninsula of the state, which it has done faithfully since it was built in the 1990s.

Now, there is talk of this processing plant being closed down and mail from the region will be shipped to Green Bay, Wisc,, a four-hour round trip in good weather. If the processing center closes, jobs will be lost and the fragile mail delivery system will be further threatened, not by a foreign terrorist, but by Dejoy himself.

This is because before there was any talk of the upper peninsula processing plant being closed, someone in the UPS headquarters decided it would be a great idea to cancel next-day mail delivery for the entire nation. This change was not made public, nor was the public given an opportunity to voice their concerns about such a change.

I understand that DeJoy has been attempting to modernize the U.S. Post Office by implementing “cost savings measures.” However, with the elimination of next-day mail delivery, DeJoy has unknowingly endangered the health of every man, woman, and child who lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

How so? Two words — water samples. The EPA requires drinking water in the U.S. be tested for bacteria infection. Such testing is critical to ensure that waterborne diseases such as dysentery and typhoid fever E do not wreck havoc in our country.

In order for water testing to be accurate, it must be completed within a certain time frame. Next-day mail delivery ensured that water samples from the upper peninsula could be tested within the allotted time frame. There is only one lab, White Water Inc., in the upper peninsula that tests all of the water samples from the region. Until Jan. 8 of this year, it had been possible for water samples sent anywhere in the upper peninsula to reach White Water Inc. in time for testing.

Getting water samples to the lab in for timely testing is no longer a possibility. Without constant water testing, the chances of outbreaks of waterborne illness greatly increase. With the elimination of next-day mail delivery, it has become next to impossible for water to be tested within the required time frame.

The U.S. Mail provides a vital service to all Americans by not just delivering letters and packages but also medicine, water testing kits, and yes, absentee ballots. The American Postal Workers are doing their best to deliver our nations’ mail and deserve to work under a postmaster general who understands how our mail system works.

The U.S. Postmaster General should not only care about swift delivery of packages, he or she should also understand that for many Americans who live in rural America, mail is not only just letters and packages but also a lifeline to the outside world.

Dejoy’s actions have endangered that lifeline and for that he should be replaced. Furthermore, to ensure the health of our nation’s water supply, next-day mail delivery should be reinstated for all 50 states. To refuse to do so is to beg the question, “Is the US Post Office attempting to save money at the expense of Americans’ lives?”

By Tracy Asanuma, who lives in and writes about the upper peninsula of Michigan.

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