Subscribe in a readerDrinking Water Matters Part 2 – What Would it Look Like?
Here's the Secret - Drinking Water Matters
By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director
Yesterday I wrote about the “Trickle Down Problem,” which allows pollution caused by our industrial and other activities to perpetuate until it trickles down to our drinking water sources. We’re left to solve the problem with treatment and higher costs to consumers.
What would it look like to act as if drinking water matters? As noted in Part 1, we would not exempt hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas (or other activities) from the Safe Drinking Water Act. We’d also apply a great deal more foresight to our chemical policies.
It’s possible to envision an honest conversation, across our society, which actually considers the safety of our drinking water, our public health, resource depletion, climate change and the true costs of pollution. It takes bravery and political will. Our friends at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production convened one such discussion with the Toward Tomorrow project. Read more…
Posted on May 11, 2012 | Filed Under Global Warming and a New Energy Economy, Protecting America's Waters | Leave a Comment
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- Drinking Water Matters – Solving the Trickle Down Problem
- A Step in the Right Direction on Hydraulic Fracturing and Drinking Water
- What Part of “All” Don’t They Understand?
Drinking Water Matters – Solving the Trickle Down Problem
Help Us Protect Drinking Water
By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director
It’s Drinking Water Week – a good time to think about the big picture when it comes to drinking water challenges. One part of the picture that can’t get enough attention is what I call the “Trickle Down” problem.
If you’re like most people in the United States, you think drinking water is pretty important. Maybe you know something about your Public Water System or about the chemical and engineering miracle that is performed every minute by modern drinking water treatment plants. You might even know there is a law called the Safe Drinking Water Act and think that it’s practical to protect our drinking water at all costs. Read more…
Posted on May 10, 2012 | Filed Under Protecting America's Waters | 2 Comments
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Safe Chemicals, please
Take Action for Safe Chemicals Today!
By Cindy Luppi, New England Director
May is here and for many, the top thing on our minds is spring and whether the Celtics can continue their tear in playoffs (Rondo!) or if the Sox will ever turn it around in the Valentine years (and, if you’re not from New England, feel free to insert your own sports teams/metaphors here).
For me, Spring always reminds me of my grandmother, Aubine. She was born in early April, over 100 years ago in a small town in northern Maine.
She taught my sisters and me many things over the years, but the single over-riding lesson was crystal clear: you take on the hard jobs, and you don’t shy away from the things that most need doing. That’s how she lived her life, from start to finish—including working as a young girl with her family to carve a fishing camp out of the Maine wilderness. That lesson reinforces my commitment to keep on pressing for the updates to our laws that will protect us all from exposure to toxic chemicals. This campaign has been tough at times. Read more…
Posted on May 8, 2012 | Filed Under Healthy, Safer Families and Communities, Making Democracy Work | Comments Off
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A Step in the Right Direction on Hydraulic Fracturing and Drinking Water
Let's keep diesel out of fracking!
By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director
As experts on the Safe Drinking Water Act, we weren’t at all thrilled when Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from the law back in 2005. EPA’s draft policy around fracking operations that use diesel addresses the only “exemption in that exemption” and because of that is very important. We’ve seen since then that drinking water impacts are one of the biggest areas of concern with this type of oil and gas drilling and the exemption needs to be reversed.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) exempts hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) “… except when diesel fuel is used”. So there’s only one way in which the SDWA can come into play in “fracking” operations and that’s where diesel is used. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deserves support for its draft guidance for how to protect underground sources of drinking water when diesel is injected during fracturing. Read more…
Posted on May 4, 2012 | Filed Under Healthy, Safer Families and Communities, Protecting America's Waters | Comments Off
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Love Your Mother
by Jonathan A. Scott
There are lots of great ways to celebrate Mother’s Day. 
While there is no substitute for an in-person visit or celebratory phone call (or video chat, if you’re so inclined), there is also a rich tradition involving gifts of cards, pictures flowers, edible goodies and more.
If you wanted to add or substitute something on this list, you might consider giving a gift to Clean Water Action or Clean Water Fund in honor or memory of your mother, grandmother and/or other special women in your life. In our household, we often give a gift of blankets (for disaster relief) in the form of donations to Church World Service. There are many worthy causes – we’d still put Clean Water at or near the top – and this form of Mother’s Day gift is always appreciated.
One other advantage of gifts-in-honor or in-memory is that they do not actually involve buying more “stuff.” Thus they have the added benefit of also honoring Mother Earth (positive benefit, negligible environmental harm).
Still want to go the traditional route? If you’re not able to buy locally or prefer to buy online, we have these planet-friendly recommendations, which offer the added advantage of generating donations for Clean Water Action at no added cost to you. The first five of these have been put together for Clean Water Action by our partners at We-Care.com.
1-800-Flowers
The Planet Friendly collection from 1-800-Flowers is grown in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Each beautiful arrangement is sure to brighten Mom’s day. Sustainable arrangements from 1-800-Flowers. (8% Donation)
http://cleanwateraction.we-care.com/EOffer/c32276
RitzPix.com
Take a picture of your mother and you, or the family, or a great photo that Mom took and print it into a work of art at RitzPix.com. 50% OFF a canvas wrapped photo at RitzPix.com with coupon code CANVAS50 (10% Donation)
http://cleanwateraction.we-care.com/EOffer/c31941
Crane & Co
Crane & Co greeting cards are made with 100% recovered cotton fibers, and use fewer chemicals and produce far less waste than paper made from trees. A beautiful card from Crane & Co may be the simplest way to show Mom your love. Mother’s Day Cards from Crane & Co earn (5% Donation)
http:/cleanwateraction.we-care.com/EOffer/c32273
Harry & David
Treat Mom to some delicious organic treats; Harry & David has the most elegant organic baskets to show your Mother you care. Deluxe Organic Fruit Gift Basket from Harry & David (6% Donation)
http://cleanwateraction.we-care.com/EOffer/c32275
Bambeco –This sustainable products company is continuing its special offer for Clean Water Action supporters through the end of May. Many great ideas on this site if you’re stuck on what to get for Mother’s Day or any other occasion. 15% off at checkout with code CLEANWATER40
http://cleanwateraction.we-care.com/EOffer/c28187
Do you like the idea of having your online purchases generate donations for Clean Water Action automatically, at no extra cost to you? Check out the Clean Water Action online shopping App from We-Care.com. Once installed it works automatically with your web browser to make that happen, with more than 2000 participating online merchants.
There’s also a cool new search tool you can add to your web browser that generates donations every time you do a web search. The donations from the search tool and the shopping App may be small (we call them micro-donations), but with more than 300,000 Clean Water Action supporters using them (and growing), they really add up. We receive tens of thousands of donations this way every month. Join with us by installing the Clean Water Action App today.
One more Mother’s Day suggestion. The special Earth Month offer from Aromafloria (“Wellness in 
Bloom”) which offers sustainably produced personal care products, continues until May 9. That’s 15% off at checkout when you use the code CLEANWATER40, and 15% of all online sales donated to Clean Water Fund.
Love Your Mother. This Mother’s Day, you don’t need to buy anything in order to communicate your love and gratitude. If you do decide to make a donation or purchase a gift, we hope you will keep Clean Water Action, Clean Water Fund and our Water Planet in mind when you do so.
Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Clean Water Action & Clean Water Fund!
Posted on May 4, 2012 | Filed Under Healthy, Safer Families and Communities, Protecting America's Waters | Comments Off
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