We knew that coming off of last session’s historic environmental victories like the Watershed Protection & Restoration Act, the Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act, and eliminating Arsenic from chicken feed among others, that the 2013 session would be one of defending past success and moving ahead at least gradually towards new success. We fought long and hard to protect those victories and achieve new successes. And, powered by Clean Water Action members, we did.
Thanks to members, staff and allies, Clean Water Action enjoyed three significant victories on the final day of the 2013 legislative session in Annapolis, with exciting action on various fronts in the final hours leading up to midnight, when the legislature adjourns for the year.
With your help we:
When it rains, polluted storm water runoff is discharged into local rivers and streams without treatment. In a developed community, such as Prince George’s county, rain that falls on hard surfaces like driveways, parking lots, roofs and roads cannot seep into the ground. These surfaces create large amounts of runoff that picks up pollutants like gas, oil, pesticides, fertilizers and trash. Runoff not only pollutes our streams, but it erodes our banks. When there is a heavy storm, flooding can be unbearable.
Click here to stand up for strong storm water management rules now!
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just proposed long-overdue power plant pollution standards to limit the amount of toxic metals and other chemicals that can be dumped in our water. Unfortunately the coal industry is already trying to block them.
In 1983, 1987 and 2000, Maryland Governors and their counterparts in Virginia, the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed signed formal agreements that set timelines for cleaning up the Bay. The most recent agreement called for deadlines that were to be met by 2010. That deadline will not be met. Clean Water Action supported the strongest possible version of this latest agreement, understanding that we would continue fighting for the enforcement of the Clean Water Act as the likeliest means restoring the Bay.