We All Live Downstream

Let's get it "over the hill"39 - will it get to 40?

By Lynn Thorp, National Programs Coordinator

Today is the 39^th anniversary of the landmark Clean Water Act.  Since Clean Water Action was  founded  as the idea became law, it’s a meaningful  date for us.  The idea then was that the long struggle to point to our nation’s water problems and win a national solution was not over when President Nixon signed the bill into law.  In fact, the struggle was just beginning.

With a goal like “zero discharge of pollution” into our nation’s water by the middle 1980’s, we knew it would not be easy!  The Clean Water Act includes numerous programs and many ambitious activities.  Not all of them have been put in place yet.  And every step of the way, those who profit from unfettered ability to pollute and damage our water resources have put their money and power to work to try to limit the Act’s scope or to question the federal government’s role in protecting our water resources. Read the rest of this entry »

Power Plant Emissions

By Cord Briggs, National Programs Intern

Since taking control of the House, Republican leadership has been hard at work dismantling our clean water and air protections.  To date they have passed a whopping 160 anti-environmental bills, and that number is only continuing to sky-rocket. They have effectively made the 112^th Congress the most anti-environment Congress in history.

Last week, House Leadership pushed through a bill that would slash long-overdue air pollution standards for cement plants.  These plants are the second largest source of mercury pollution in the US and also are known producers of toxic metals like arsenic, chromium and lead.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that these standards would annually save as many as 2,500 lives and prevent 17,000 cases of asthma and 130,000 days of missed work.

There’s something new every week with this Congress. So, what’s on the agenda this week?  First up is a bill that would prevent new emissions standards for industrial boilers from taking effect and permanently exempt incinerators from the Clean Air Act.  Earth Justice estimates that, if passed, the bill could result in anywhere between 7,500 and 19,500 deaths.  After Boilers is a motion to block new protections for coal ash, which is currently largely unregulated and contains such lovely compounds as arsenic, lead and mercury.  Read the rest of this entry »