We were able to make exciting progress in protecting our water and our health in 2011. With you at our side, Clean Water Action is going to be even stronger in 2012.  

2011, which was shaping up to be dominated by attacks on environmental programs, ended being the Year of the Clean Water Advocate. It’s amazing how hard you and other Clean Water Action members worked to protect water for ALL of us. With your support and advocacy we made a powerful statement in 2011.

Clean Water Action members and supporters sent over 52,000 emails and 93,000 handwritten letters supporting our water to Members of Congress in 2011. Thousands of you contacted the White House to show support for their clean water proposals.  Thousands more wrote or called state officials, from Governors to legislators, and local officials too.  

In 2011, YOU stopped polluters and their allies in Congress, State Legislatures, and City Halls from weakening laws that protect our water.  Despite the 191 votes in the US House to weaken environmental laws, we were able to stop virtually all of these bills and riders from passing the US Senate.  But blocking attacks is only part of the story.  We also succeeded in advancing important new protections for our environment in 2011:

• At the federal level, we helped make sure the EPA took important steps to ensure that all streams are protected under the Clean Water Act, and helped generate 170,000 comments in support of this proposal!
• We helped get new laws enacted to reduce use of the toxic chemical BPA in California and Connecticut; and are poised for exciting action to reduce the use of toxic chemicals and pesticides in Massachusetts and New Jersey.  We also made exciting progress reducing dangerous diesel pollution in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Michigan
• We helped get a temporary moratorium on new fracking permits in Maryland and won passage of a ban on fracking by the New Jersey legislature.  We helped win new regulations in Colorado that will require drillers to disclose the chemicals they use and fought for strong regulation of fracking in Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states.
• We helped win new policies to protect Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, helped get new green approaches to controlling runoff adopted in a dozen or more states, and helped win new protections for important places like the Everglades, Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and San Francisco Bay. 

We’re moving into 2012 with hundreds of thousands of new supporters and nearly a million members. Because of you we’re positioned to ensure our progress continues and grows!  With your support, we plan to celebrate our 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act in 2012 with new victories that will protect clean water for ALL of us.