Sustainer Letter
Texas Currents | Winter 2011
texas currents
winter 2011 edition
Inside
is it dry enough for you?
Epic Drought: A Wake-Up Call for Conservation Planning
For more than two years now, Clean Water Action has been sounding the alarm about the looming water crisis. Continued population growth in Texas, a warming climate and fre-quent drought all prove the urgency of the need. Communities must ramp up water conservation programs now.
Austin and other Central Texas cities need to shift their spending on expensive new water treatment and distribu-tion infrastructure to smarter investments in using available water supplies more efficiently. Clean Water Action has made this case repeatedly in meetings with decision makers across the region.
Minnesota Currents | Winter 2011
minnesota currents
winter 2011 edition
Inside
state leaders prepare for 2012 session
Contentious debate on Minnesota’s current environmental protection standards filled the 2011 State Legislative Session. Legislative leaders used the state’s deficit situation and “government reform” rhetoric in attempts to weaken environmental regulations, showing disappointing parallels to actions underway in Congress. Although Clean Water Action and allies stopped some of the most extreme, destructive anti-environmental initiatives put forth in 2011, special interests and corporate polluters clearly found much support in both the State House and Senate. With help from Gov. Mark Dayton, bills to weaken water protections, lift the nuclear moratorium, and remove restrictions on new coal plants were all turned back. However, polluters were successful in exploiting loopholes to weaken environmental review laws and circumvent the permitting process. There is every reason to expect these attacks to continue in 2012.
New England Currents | Winter 2011
new england currents
winter 2011 edition
Inside
making manufacturers take out the trash!
Americans generate a lot of trash — some would say, much more than their “fair share.” Many people feel that each individual should be responsible for reducing their own waste, perhaps along with the local community recycling program. The reality is that cities and towns have ended up bearing most of the responsibility — and the costs — for figuring out ways to reduce waste and make recycling programs work. Over the past ten years, however, new policies challenging this conventional approach have started gaining traction.
California Currents | Winter 2011
california currents
winter 2011 edition
Inside
getting to the source of plastics and trash in our waterways
Clean Water Action wanted to know where all the plastics and trash in the world’s oceans and inland waterways, such as the San Francisco Bay, are coming from. Research has long held that 80% of ocean debris is generated from land-based sources. It enters waterways through the storm drain system or gets blown into waterways from open garbage dumps and trash containers. But where is all that trash originating? There research just wasn’t there.
Phasing Out Foam Food Containers:
Support SB 568 (Lowenthal)
Clean
Water Action is working at both the local and state levels to get rid
of foam food containers — a bad actor in the marine environment. Small
pieces of foam evade litter cleanup and are mistaken for food by all
kinds of marine wildlife.
Polystyrene foam (incorrectly referred to as Styrofoam™ — a material
used for transport packaging) is bad for the environment and toxic too.
Colorado Currents | Winter 2011
colorado currents
winter 2011 edition
Inside
frack attack across colorado's front range!
Northern Colorado, home base to Colorado Clean Water Action in Fort Collins, is in the midst of the biggest fracking boom in the United States. Weld County, just east of Fort Collins, has more active oil and gas wells than any county in the U.S, with nearly 18,000 wells. As a geologic formation called the “Niobrara Shale” is drilled for oil and gas, 10,000 to 20,000 more wells could be added. The Niobrara is a deep shale rock layer that requires hydraulic fracking to get out the oil and gas. As is the case with shale gas fracking across the U.S., the issue is extremely controversial in northern Colorado. Recently, cities and counties up and down the Front Range have been dealing with the consequences of drilling and fracking.Florida Currents | Winter 2011
florida currents
winter 2011 edition
good new for the everglades!
The final months of 2011 have brought exciting news for the future of Everglades restoration. A fully restored Everglades ecosystem will strengthen the economy and improve water quality and quality of life for people across South Florida. All of these benefits are now much closer to being realized.
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Clean Water Action’s new POWER campaign “is about real people in communities across Florida sending a message to local, state, and federal lawmakers." “We want elected officials to represent our health and well-being
regardless of partisan affiliation or political aspirations. It is about
stepping up and taking back our basic rights..." - Kathy Aterno
Coal's Dirty Backside
By now, most people are aware of the devastating impacts coal mining — especially the kind that removes entire mountaintops — can have on water and on the natural landscapes where it takes place. Similarly, the pollution that spews from power plant stacks where coal is burned is widely understood as a major water pollution source and public health threat, to say nothing of the added global warming burden. Mercury from coal plants is one of the main sources of contamination that has made so many fish caught by recreational fishing unsafe to eat.Clean Water Currents | Fall 2011
we can’t live without clean water. it’s that simple.
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Clean Water Currents Fall 2011
It's That Simple | Dirty Water Caucus in Congress | Fixing the Clean Water Act | Fracking Fights | Clean Water Jobs | Ban the Foam | Scoring Congress | Coal's Dirty Backside | Your Impact on Water Download Clean Water Currents
But sometimes, the people we elect seem to forget that. They’ve been
forgetting it a lot lately in Washington, DC and in too many of our
state capitols. But with your support, we keep reminding them how
important clean water is… to our health, to our quality of life, to our
economy and to our jobs!
This fall marked the 39th anniversary of the Clean Water Act — one of
our most successful environmental laws ever! The Clean Water Act has
restored lakes, rivers and streams around the country to health.
Because of this law, the Cuyahoga River doesn’t catch on fire, our Great
Lakes have come back to life, and thousands of rivers and streams are
healthier now than they’ve been in fifty years! But instead of
celebrating our progress, those of us who care about our water find
ourselves defending against an all-out assault.
Fall 2011 State Spotlight
will california be first to ban foam containers?
This year, California’s State Senate and two key committees in the State Assembly approved SB 568, which would be the nation’s first statewide ban on expanded polystyrene (StyrofoamTM) con-tainers. If approved, the measure would require the foam used in food and beverage containers to be phased out by 2016. Intense lobbying by industry forced the bill’s supporters to hold it over for consideration in 2012, which will allow Clean Water Action and allies to continue building support for the ban. Fifty-four California jurisdictions have already enacted foam food container bans.
This year, California’s State Senate and two key committees in the State Assembly approved SB 568, which would be the nation’s first statewide ban on expanded polystyrene (StyrofoamTM) con-tainers. If approved, the measure would require the foam used in food and beverage containers to be phased out by 2016. Intense lobbying by industry forced the bill’s supporters to hold it over for consideration in 2012, which will allow Clean Water Action and allies to continue building support for the ban. Fifty-four California jurisdictions have already enacted foam food container bans.
Fixing the Clean Water Act
nine years ago, the bush administration began weakening water policies to limit which resources would be protected under the clean water act.
Bolstered by a pair of polluter-friendly U.S. Supreme Court decisions, those weakening changes have left water vulnerable to pollution across huge areas of the U.S. Those gaps in protection now threaten drinking water sources for more than 117 million Americans.
