National Blog Posts

Forty-two years ago today, on October 18, 1972, the U.S. Congress passed the Clean Water Act. Clean Water Action was founded that same year to help push for final passage of the law and to work for ongoing clean water protections. 

Last week EPA held a public meeting in DC to share updates and take public comment on the agency’s study of oil and gas wastewater, also known as produced water. The oil and gas industry has grown significantly in water constrained states around the country, like Texas and New Mexico, and has a long history of putting drinking water sources at risk, from California to Pennsylvania.

Everything I did in the first five minutes after getting out of bed this morning would not have been possible without water and the critical infrastructure that delivers it to my home.

Have you walked down the lotion, cleaning product, or  personal care aisles lately and gotten a little light headed from the hundreds of different fragrances hitting you all at once? Do you ever avoid walking past the perfume area in Macy’s or any of the other large retailers in malls?

Despite the fact that I knew, in real time, how many members of Congress were voting to wipe out protections for our water, supporting an agenda to walk back action on climate, and putting the short-term profits of campaign donors before the needs of the public, I was a little shocked at the terrible scores.

President Trump and Acting Administrator Wheeler are ditching a carefully crafted program that addressed the climate crisis. They are putting our health at risk, and our future, by catering to their fossil fuel industry cronies. This is bad attempt to prop-up 20th century energy companies while trying to slow the transition to clean energy.