More than two months ago President Obama nominated Gina McCarthy, a dedicated public servant with nearly three decades of experience, to be EPA Administrator. We’re still waiting for the Senate to confirm her. You can make sure she gets a vote, and that your Senators vote YES, by telling your Senators “I stand with Gina!” Click here to tell your Senators!

Washington, DC:  Clean Water Action joined dozens of groups to urge President Obama to protect our water from pollution from power plants. The groups are urging the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed “Steam Electric Power Generating Category Effluent Limitation Guidelines” for public comment by the court-ordered deadline of April 19th.

“Coal fired power plants are the largest water polluters in the U.S. They account for nearly three quarters of toxic water pollution,” said Robert Wendelgass, Clean Water Action President and CEO. “The amount of toxic pollution, which includes arsenic, mercury, cadmium and selenium, which are all harmful to humans and aquatic life – are incredible and must be drastically reduced.”

Did your State Senator vote to protect our water? Did your Assembly Member work to ensure all Californians have access to safe and affordable water? Are your legislators and the Governor standing up for you or are they standing with polluters? Find out all of that and more!

Our California Clean Water Legislative Scorecard grades your legislators on their work to protect our water, our environment and our communities during the 2011-2012 legislative session, which ended in August!  In it, we track Clean Water Action’s 2011 – 2012 legislative priorities including:

• ensuring Californians have access to  safe and affordable drinking water, and
• making sure the water quality of our state’s precious waterways is improved, and that state policies ensure environmental justice, reduce exposure to toxic chemicals, and prevent plastic pollution and waste.
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Clean Water Action has worked with local groups around the state to raise awareness of water dangers and other risks posed by oil and gas drilling and fracking. Together with local “fractivists” and municipalities, Clean Water Action helped win new fracking regulations and local moratorium measures, including those in Fort Collins and Boulder County. The Fort Collins moratorium is in effect through July 2013. The Boulder County moratorium expires this February, but will likely be extended to give the county time to update and strengthen its recently adopted fracking regulations. Helping additional communities exercise their rights for local control of drilling and fracking operations is a priority for the coming year.

“Setback” rules determining the distance allowed between drill sites and structures such as homes and schools were also hotly debated. Current state law allows drilling and fracking as close 350 feet in densely populated areas and 150 feet in rural areas. A state “setbacks stakeholder” group is recommending new drill site setback standards.

Communities along the Front Range are concerned about current standards and are looking to scientific studies to guide setbacks rulemaking. Clean Water Action supports a 2,000-foot minimum drill site setback in Colorado. Read more

Following one of the most disappointing sessions for the environment in 2011, this year environmental advocates and legislators in Annapolis pulled out all the stops and were successful passing bills that will significantly improve and protect Maryland’s water quality and resources. We made a lot of progress in 2012, but there is much to be done.  Make sure you stay involved. 

Between November, 2011 and February, 2012, the Pennsylvania state legislature held a series of votes on HB 1950 (Act 13), a bill that proposed to overturn hundreds of local ordinances on gas drilling, while establishing the nation’s lowest impact fee and making minimal improvements to oil and gas regulations. Passage of Act 13 is the first significant legislation enacted in Pennsylvania since the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom began over four years ago, and represents a giant step backward in environmental protection, especially through eliminating any local control over gas drilling. The Scorecard covers final passage votes as well as votes on floor amendments to the bill.

See how your state legislators scored by downloading the entire Marcellus Scorecard. Take action and hold your legislators accountable for their votes!

our wetlands and streams are at risk.

the president can do something about that.
Today, nearly 20 million acres of wetlands are at risk. Because they lack protection under the Clean Water Act, these vital parts of our water infrastructure are vulnerable to destruction by unaccountable polluters. The President has proposed to fix this problem and protect ALL of our wetlands. We support him and we need you to join us.

california

is poised to become the first state to

ban the foam!

You wouldn’t use something if you knew that it was a carcinogen, would you? You might be, every day.  Popularly known as Styrofoam™, polystyrene foam take-out containers leach a carcinogen (styrene) into food and beverages when heated.  California is on the verge of passing the first statewide ban on polystyrene in the nation. 

Clean Water Action is fighting foam in California.  Our 2011 litter study found that 68% of trash on urban streets comes from take-out food packaging. Foam containers are light-weight and blow away before street sweepers and litter pickers can get to them. Foam breaks apart into small pieces and flows through storm drains to waterways, ending up as the most pervasive form of beach litter in California.

Trenton, New Jersey – Today New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed the New Jersey Ban Bill (S-2576), flying in the face of the public and the New Jersey Legislature and forfeiting the opportunity to make New Jersey the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” in modern times.  During the Senate’s session August 25, the Governor issued a conditional veto (CV) that set a one year moratorium on fracking in the State.  Environmental groups dismissed the moratorium as meaningless and vowed to work for an over-ride of the CV.  The Frack Ban Bill arose out of a public rallying cry for pro-active action by the State to prevent the water, land and air pollution that is occurring everywhere where fracking is being used to extract natural gas from deep geologic formations such as Marcellus and Utica Shale.     

post by Christine LeMieux, Global Warming and Energy Programs Coordinator

While media headlines as of late are dominated by the latest healthcare happenings on the Hill, progress on climate and energy legislation continues. Both issues are related to critical questions about how we will take care of our public health and our economy in the coming decades. Over the past month, 6 Senate committees have held hearings and action is expected after Congress returns from recess in September.