We All Live Downstream

By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director

Last week the President released his administration’s  2013 federal budget proposal.  Even though there is some important math involved the main thrust of the proposal is about sending signals and setting priorities.  In the face of the 191 bills and amendments to gut health and environmental protections which PASSED the U.S. House of Representatives last year, the White House budget proposal adds up pretty well.

Taken as a whole, the White House budget tells us that this Administration doesn’t support the House efforts to gut water, air and health protections.  They think that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs to keep doing its job implementing laws that Congress has passed and that other federal agencies have roles to play in protecting our most vital resources – clean water, clean air and us. Read the rest of this entry »

By Gary Wockner, Colorado Program Director

Originally published on the Huffington Post.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s three-state sweep in the 2012 Republican caucuses this week throws the Republican race into disarray and also demonstrates just how wildly anti-environmental many Republicans — including the majority here in Colorado — have become.

It’s ironic that Santorum’s sweep occurred within weeks of the international silver screen debut of Dr. Seuss’ book, The Lorax. Known worldwide as a treehugging environmentalist — “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.” — The Lorax is a popular children’s book first published in 1971. Since that time, the Lorax (which is a fluffy endangered species-like critter that lives in trees called “truffulas”) has become somewhat of an American environmental icon which will no doubt be re-solidified in the next few months by the Universal Pictures movie.

But in 1988, the Laytonville School District in Laytonville, California allegedly received a request and attempted to ban or downgrade the book, The Lorax, in its school libraries. It was allegedly argued that The Lorax “criminialized the forestry industry.”

Would Rick Santorum support banning The Lorax? Read the rest of this entry »

Michigan Policy Director Susan Harley is joined by Clean Water Heroes for the release of our Midterm Legislative Scorecard

By Cyndi Roper, Michigan State Director

If you were a Lansing lawmaker with a perfect environmental voting record in 2011, you were voting no.  With a state House majority firmly in control of the legislative agenda, the opportunity to support good environmental protections simply didn’t happen last year.  So the ticket to getting 100% on Clean Water Action’s Midterm Scorecard released today was opposing bad environmental legislation, which is what dominated the Republican majority’s policy agenda.

A majority of Michigan’s State Representatives voted repeatedly in 2011 to whittle away at our water protections using phony job creation arguments as political cover. That’s right.  They argue that weakening protections on Michigan’s lifeblood – its water – will create jobs.  (What kind of water are they drinking?!)  Not surprisingly, their votes have done nothing to create jobs. Zip. Nada.  On the other hand, protecting our Great Lakes and Michigan’s other water treasures creates jobs for today and for our future. Read the rest of this entry »

By Colleen Meehan, Pennsylvania Program Organizer

Eagles Fans for PA's Forests!

On December 18^th, Clean Water Action staff served as the Community Partner for the Philadelphia Eagles home game against the New York Jets. The Eagles recognized our work raising public awareness about threats to public health and the importance of our person-to-person approach to public education. So, we wondered, what could we do that would both advance our goals and make a fun, quick way of interacting with Eagles fans on game day.

When in doubt, resort to arts and crafts. We wanted to give Eagles fans a chance to stand up for a public resource that everyone cares about in Pennsylvania: state parks and state forests. So we made two huge signs that looked like trees for fans to hold up in photos and show their support for keeping public lands public.

Most Pennsylvanians agree that all the effort the Commonwealth has put into restoring forests lost to the timber industry 100 years ago shouldn’t be squandered to turn a quick buck for the state. The average person wants to keep our public lands public. Hikers, hunters and day trippers enjoy our parks and state forests, and they also provide real environmental services. Forests help to control air pollution and they filter rain water. Read the rest of this entry »

By Lynn Thorp, National Programs Director

On the first day back after the New Year, with 2011 and all the resolution making behind us, I wondered what would be in store for our work in 2012.  If yesterday’s Washington Post is any indication, maybe we’ll find a renewed understanding of the critical need to protect public health and natural resources.

On the front page, above the fold, we learned that our nation’s public water systems and waste water systems  need to upgrade and replace our water infrastructure to the tune of over $300 billion.  That’s a tough reality to accept, but it’s true.   Our systems are old and they’re crumbling.  It’s time our water infrastructure got the same public attention that is paid to our roads.  I really liked this sentence, because it’s a fact we don’t hear enough: “Although they are out of sight and out of mind except when they spring a leak, water and sewer systems are more vital to civilized society that any other aspect of infrastructure.”  Meeting our infrastructure needs and acting like preventing contamination of drinking water is Job #1, rather than more Congressional attacks on water protection, is a debate I’d love to have in 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

By Gary Wockner, Colorado Program Director

This piece first appeared on the Huffington Post

First, the good: A few weeks ago, the State of Colorado passed the strongest rules in the United States for publicly disclosing what cancer-causing and other types chemicals are used in oil and gas fracking. In a ground-breaking and intense set of negotiations between oil and gas companies and environmentalists, frackers are now forced to publicly disclose when they are fracking and what chemicals they use in fracking.

This disclosure gets at two very serious concerns posed by fracking: 1) when fracking pollution occurs in groundwater, in streams, or on land, the public should be able to connect that pollution back to the fracking chemicals that caused it, and 2) it will allow landowners to test their wells and groundwater prior to fracking, and then re-test after fracking to check for fracking pollution.

Importantly, the new rules substantively removed the “trade secret loophole” that was proposed in the original version of the rules that would have allowed frackers to not disclose the names of the chemicals in fracking fluids by saying those chemicals were “trade secrets.” Led by attorneys from Earthjustice in Denver, the environmental community held its ground against this ridiculous exemption. Read the rest of this entry »

No Fracking in the Delaware Watershed!

By Jenny Vickers, New Jersey Communications Coordinator and Organizer

In just a few days the Delaware River Watershed could be opened up to a controversial method of natural gas extraction – hydraulic fracturing – putting the drinking water for 15 million people, including 3 million in New Jersey at risk.

On Monday, November 21, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), consisting of the governors of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, plus Army Corps of Engineers which represents the federal government, will vote on proposed rules that would lift a moratorium and allow tens of thousands of gas wells to be drilled in the basin. Read the rest of this entry »

By Clean Water Action Minnesota

Contact your Senators today!

Congress continues to strip out standards that protect our health from hazardous pollution. In the coming days, the U.S. Senate will vote on the Congressional Review Act (S.J. Res. 27) sponsored by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). The Congressional Review Act is an anti-regulatory, rarely-used mechanism for blocking federal agency rules. Senator Paul is using this political tactic to block the Cross State Air Pollution Rule.

Finalized this past July, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule improves air quality for 240 million Americans by cutting power plant smog and soot emissions that cross state lines and contribute to unsafe levels of air pollution. This rule is needed to protect Americans in downwind states from the health and economic costs caused by pollution emitted in other states.

The Cross State Air Pollution Rule will have significant health benefits. It will save up to 34,000 lives by preventing 15,000 heart attacks and 400,000 aggravated asthma attacks and hundreds of thousands of cases of other respiratory ailments every year. In 2014, the rule is estimated to result in up to $280 billion in annual health care savings.

Your Senators need to hear from you! Tell them to stand up for clean air and vote NO on the Congressional Review Act!

Please call the Congressional Switchboard, (202) 224-2131 and ask for your Senator

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 »

By Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania State Director

"Flaring" a fracked well

The EPA’s strong proposal to restrict air emissions from oil and gas extraction operations is a good start.  EPA regulations of these large pollution sources are urgently needed in cities like Pittsburgh and in many other communities across the country.  Gas drilling has been poorly controlled by state governments and we desperately need the federal government to take a strong role in protecting public health and the environment.

Take a look at the picture to the left.  That is a Marcellus Shale gas well being “flared” and it was taken from the backyard of a Washington County, PA resident.  This is one of the most drilled regions of Pennsylvania and it’s just outside of Pittsburgh.  This is not an isolated photo – Pennsylvania allows gas wells as close as 200 feet from a residence.  People are living extremely close to these pollution sources.  The EPA and state governments must take this into account when making any new rules on emissions from fracking operations.
Read the rest of this entry »