As I watched a February 11 hearing about regulating lead at the tap, I experienced one of those “Opposite Day” episodes where two objective realities collide. I listened to 7 witnesses talk to the U.S. Congress about the proposed revisions to the Safe Drinking Water Act Lead and Copper Rule. My colleague Kim Gaddy, who lives in Newark, talked about what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should do to improve the proposal.
Yesterday, we testified in favor of House Bill 279, which would reduce the barriers that prevent people who want to reduce polluted stormwater runoff from installing green infrastructure on their own property. As we work to improve our local waterways, local governments should be making that easier, not harder! Here's what we had to say:
HB 279: Real Property - Restrictions on Use - Low-Impact Landscaping
House Environment and Transportation Committee
February 11, 2020
These cuts won’t just mean that EPA is doing less to protect our water, they also hit state and local governments and drinking water systems hard. States where Clean Water Action works would lose out on federal funding, leaving taxpayers and ratepayers holding the bag.
Did you know that Maryland lets counties get recycling credits for burning their trash and using the ash? The current Maryland Recycling Act allows municipalities to claim a 5% boost on their recycling just by using a trash incinerator, and also to count use of the highly toxic incinerator ash left over as recycling! Today, the House Environment and Transportation Committee held its hearing on HB179 to fix that problem. Here's what we had to say:
Today, I was honored to testify at the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change Hearing on EPA's Lead and Copper Rule Proposal: Failing to Protect Public Health.
The Massachusetts State Senate introduced then passed three climate bills at a breakneck speed that laid out broad new commitments to tackle carbon pollution emissions in a variety of ways.
More than 5 million Californians live near oil and gas production. In Kern County, oil production is wedged between homes and looms over schools and playground. Our communities are under a haze of contaminants due to the gargantuan fields of oil and gas wells bordering towns and scattered along our roads.
To stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis, the global and U.S. economies need to decarbonize as fast as possible. Capturing carbon emissions from industrial sources and pulling carbon out of the air via direct air capture are technologies we will likely need in our toolbox if we are to achieve net zero or negative greenhouse gas emissions.
UPDATE: The public comment period closed on February 12, 2020. Clean Water Action members submitted more than 15,000 letters and emails asking EPA to do more to protect our water and communities from lead.
Hi all! My name is Veronica Weyhrauch and I’m a Field Manager with our Maryland office. Every day the entire field canvass team, including myself, head out to knock on doors and convince people to get involved.
The Trump administration finalized its signature Clean Water Act rollback, the Dirty Water Rule. This extreme interpretation of our bedrock water quality law rolls back the clock to a time when corporate polluters could dump toxic waste into rivers and streams and pave over wetlands without seeking a permit.