Waterkeeper Alliance

Photo Blog: Poultry CAFOs

2009-11-05T06:52:00.000-08:00

Latest news Pure Farms Pure Waters Campaign

From left to right: Choptank Riverkeeper, Drew Koslow, Assateague Coastkeeper, Kathy Phillips, and Waterkeeper Emeritus, Rick Dove

Dove and Waterkeeper Alliance Staff Attorney, Liane Curtis, flew over the Chesepeak Bay in persuit of chicken manure.

Dove, Curtis, and Lighthawk pilot Tim Drager prepare for the fly over.

Aerial shot of chicken manure that measures two stories high. The uncovered stockpiling of chicken manure is a common farming practice on the Eastern Shore. With every rain event, manure run offs into ditches and streams that lead to the Chesapeake Bay causing devastating nutrient pollution, as well as ecoli and fecal coliform contamination.

Photo of a poultry farm in close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay.

Another photo of the dying Chesapeake Bay.

Phillips collects water samples.

Read the Wallstreet Journal Article about Dove and Curtis's fly over: Chicken Litter: The Aerial Hunt for Poultry Manure

Find out more at about Chicken and other CAFO's at The Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign at Waterkeeper.org.

2009-10-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

More than a hundred supporters showed up outside JPMorgan Chase to tell the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon that he is destroying our country and people’s lives by funding mountaintop removal coal mining.

The ringmaster, contortionist, hula hoopers and marching band set the carnival tone,while speakers from Waterkeeper Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, NY Action Network, and Sierra Club highlighted why Chase is the most shocking show on earth.

Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen traveled more than a thousand miles to speak to the crowd about how the coal industry is reeking havoc on his community in Alabama and through out Appalachia.

© Heath Fradkoff 2009
Click to hear an excerpt

The event continues throughout the day. Take action by calling Chase and following the script below: 212-270-6000.

Hi, my name is:

I’m calling to ask JPMorgan Chase to be an environmental leader and invest in the renewable energy infrastructure America needs, not mountaintop removal, the most destructive method of coal mining on Earth.

Massey Energy, funded by JPMorgan Chase, has started mountaintop removal operations on Coal River Mountain, one of the last mountains in southern West Virginia not touched by mountaintop removal.

JPMorgan Chase is now the largest U.S. financier of mountaintop removal – a brutal, toxic, and irreversibly destructive coal mining practice.

Already more than 500 mountains and 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining operations. This practice must stop NOW.

Can you use your influence within Chase to work toward a new policy that moves JPMorgan Chase’s portfolio away from coal and toward safe and renewable energy?

Thank you very much and have a nice day!

Join the action on Twitter: RT @Waterkeepers: #JPMorganChase CEO #Jamie Dimon from investing in mountaintop removal. (RT)

Find out more about this and coal’s other amazing atrocities at thedirtylie.org and waterkeeper.org.

TOMORROW: Carnival of Destruction

2009-10-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

Tell JPMorgan Chase to stop using your deposit dollars to finance ecological and social tragedies like mountaintop removal coal mining.

MEET US AT 8 AM ON PARK AVE BETWEEN 47th AND 48th (270 PARK AVE)

Halloween is coming early to JPMorgan Chase, as scores of costumed demonstrators descend on the investment bank’s offices in midtown Manhattan. The “Carnival of Destruction,” held by Waterkeeper All iance, Rai nforest Action Network, Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth, was conducted to protest the investment bank’s financing of coal companies whose mining practices are devastating the environment.

“JPMorgan Chase invests hundreds of millions of dollars in the coal industry every year – bankrolling some of the biggest players in mountaintop removal coal mining, including the notorious Massey Energy Company,” states Waterkeeper’s legal director Scott Edwards. “The destruction they finance must be stopped, and people everywhere need to know that clean coal is nothing but a dirty lie.”

Although CEO Jamie Dimon claims his company is dedicated to the promotion of clean energy, JPMorgan Chase ranks today as the largest underwriter of coal companies that engage in mountaintop removal coal mining, financing six of the eight largest firms operating in Appalachia. The leading polluter in the industry, Massey Energy, continues to be a major client of the bank’s, which recently underwrote a $1 billion public offering for the company. Both Wells Fargo and Bank of America have ended their client relationships with the coal company in light of the potential impact of Massey’s destructive business practices on their own bottom lines.

“Coal-burning power plants are the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, while mountaintop removal coal mining destroys mountains and devastates communities throughout Appalachia,” said Annie Sartor of the Rainforest Action Network. “With today’s action, we’re telling Chase that their financing of coal and mountaintop removal is truly the most shocking show on earth!”

Join the event online by re-tweeting @waterkeepers with this text:
RT@waterkeepers:#CarnivalofDestruction to stop #JPMorganChase CEO #Jamie Dimon from investing in mountaintop removal.

Call Chase to voice your opinion: 212-270-6000

Gloria Reuben Urges Jamie Dimon to Stop Finding the Coal Industry

2009-10-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

Waterkeeper Alli ance Board of Trustees Vice Chair Gloria Reuben sent a letter to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon urging him to stop bankrolling the coal industry, especially mountaintop-removal mining. Check out the letter below and blogs heartfelt blogs on her website and in The Huffington Post.

Join the actress, singer and social activist in telling JP Mrgan Chase to stop finding the coal industry. Come to the Carnival of Destruction on October 29, at 8 am. Click here all the details,
and head to thedirtylie.com to see all the coal industies amazing atrocities.

Dear Mr. Dimon:

I am writing to you about an urgent issue – to respectfully request you end JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s support of the coal industry. This industry is destroying our nation’s oldest and most diverse mountains, causing catastrophic erosion and flooding, devastating ecosystems, poisoning drinking water, and obliterating historic communities. By investing in the coal industry, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is complicit in this wholesale destruction.

Mr. Dimon, you fund six of the top eight coal mining companies responsible for mountaintop-removal coal mining in the U.S., a practice that has been described as “raping Appalachia.” Your company has underwritten more than $1 billion in new financing to Massey Energy, the largest mountaintop-removal coal mining company. Massey Energy has a deplorable record, including breaches of employee safety standards, recent violent acts at peaceful gatherings, and violating the federal Clean Water Act at least 4,500 times – resulting in a $30 million fine. Massey Energy’s CEO, Don Blankenship, has been implicated in buying the influence of Supreme Court justices in West Virginia.

As an actress and performer, I’ve been privileged to see firsthand America’s unparalleled beauty and I can state unequivocally that no place has moved me as aesthetically and spiritually as the Appalachian Mountains. I am honored to speak for this region in my capacity as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Waterkeeper Alliance.

There is no redeeming chapter in the story of coal. From mining it to the disposal of ash after it’s burned, the coal industry is bad for the environment, bad for our health, bad for our communities, and bad for your bank. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has emerged financially strong from the economic crisis, but it has also emerged as a top financier of coal. Investing in the coal industry, especially mountaintop-removal coal mining, is a bad corporate decision. Investing in renewable energy like wind and solar power creates at least 2.8 times the number of jobs as coal for the same investment. Investing in conservation creates 3.8 as many jobs as coal, and mass transit investments create more than six times as many jobs. Investing in a clean energy economy provides jobs that mountaintop-removal coal mining simply cannot.

You have spoken often about your commitment to holding JPMorgan Chase & Co. to the highest standards of corporate social responsibility, yet your actions contradict that. Mr. Dimon, please demonstrate your leadership by announcing that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will no longer be associated with mountaintop-removal coal mining, the largest ecological and social disaster being perpetrated in America today. Stop bankrolling mountaintop-removal coal mining and the coal industry.

Respectfully,

Gloria Reuben
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Waterkeeper Alliance

www.thedirtylie.com

Climate Change and Coal

2009-10-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Coal mining is notorious for trapping miners and causing black lung, but that isn’t why Jim Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, calls coal-fired power plants “death factories” and urges world leaders to close them.

Climate change threatens the world’s water resources, coastal communities, and our continued existence on planet earth. And coal is fueling climate change: 40 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions come from coal-fired power plants, which pump out billions of tons of carbon pollution annually.

The coal industry and their lobbyists want you to believe coal is clean, but it’s a dirty lie. From mining it to burning it, coal is a filthy source of energy and will never be “clean.” The truth is that coal pollutes our water, devastates forests and mountains, kills wildlife and causes climate change. Coal has poisoned our drinking water and our fish, contaminating out bodies and babies with mercury and other toxins.

Clean coal is a dirty lie, and our campaign against it hits its one-year anniversary in February. Our efforts to raise awareness on thedirtylie.com, support member organizations with local advocacy, and create e-activism are ramping up to take on the investment bankers who are bankrolling the coal industry and its destructive practices.

In an upcoming event (kept on the down low for now), we’re partnering with other environmental organizations to protest JPMorgan Chase’s use of your money to fund clean coal’s dirtiest little secret—mountaintop removal coal mining—despite portraying themselves as a squeaky clean financial institution.

We’ll announce the details of that event soon, but anyone can sign up for alerts about the soon-to-be-announced event, take action and get information about the amazing atrocities the coal industry and its backers are committing, at thedirtylie.com.

Join the cause on Facebook

President Clinton Addresses Waterkeepers at 10th Anniversary Conference

2009-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

A President Breaks Hearts in Appalachia - by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

2009-07-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Friday, July 3, 2009

Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?

If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly -- to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains -- encompassing about a million acres -- buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not -- obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas -- while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry's promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry's fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains -- with their impoverished and alienated population -- are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens.

to continue reading the entire article, click here

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2009-07-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

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Waterkeeper Alliance History

2009-07-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

Waterkeeper Alliance Earth Day Auction - Bidding Has Started!

2009-04-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

Check out Waterkeeper Alliance Earth Day Auction hosted by CharityBuzz! Do good, have fun and support Waterkeeper Alliance, the voice for the world's waters.

Here are just some of the items you can bid on NOW:

-Lunch with Susie Essman at The Friar's Club in NYC
-Two (2) Tickets and Lounge Passes to see Dave Matthews Band
-Signed Gibson Guitar from Peter Frampton
-Amy Acker's Personal and Signed Dollhouse Pilot Script, "Ghosts"
-Enjoy 2 House Seats to Broadway's Rock of Ages and Meet the Cast Backstage PLUS Drinks Afterwards with the Star, James Carpinello and His Wife, Amy Acker
- Lunch with Richard Dean Anderson on the Set of His New Stargate SG-1 Movie
- An Enchanted Evening with Neil Patrick Harris at The Magic Castle

And more!

Check out CharityBuzz for a complete list
http://www.charitybuzz.com/area.do?id=638

Thank you for being a part of the cause!

Press Release Announcng the Rally Against Cliffside Coal Plant

2009-04-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Statement released on April 15, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Scott Edwards 914-674-0622 ext. 13

DIRTY COAL SHOULDN’T PAY: WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE JOINS EARTH DAY DEMONSTRATION AGAINST COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS

Rally aims to raise awareness of the devastating effects of coal combustion.

New York, NY, April 15, 2009 – On Monday, April 20th, actress and Waterkeeper Alliance trustee Gloria Reuben (of “ER” fame and star of TNT’s “Raising the Bar”) will join North Carolina’s Waterkeepers and environmental groups from across the United States in a rally in Charlotte, N.C., to stop construction of Duke Energy’s proposed Cliffside coal-fired power plant.

The rally will take place at Marshall Park beginning at 10 a.m., where Reuben will be one of the keynote speakers. Marchers will then walk to the office of North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue to demand that she join them in opposing the Cliffside plant, and then to Duke headquarters to deliver a message to Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers.

Waterkeeper Alliance’s participation in the rally is part of the group’s national anti-coal campaign. Called “The Dirty Lie,” the campaign is intended to create broader awareness of the destructiveness of coal—from its role in propping up an antiquated fossil-fuel-based economy to its adverse effects on the environment and the health of millions of Americans—and, ultimately, to bring about a change in national energy policy.

Every year, U.S. coal-fired power plants release 48 tons of the neurotoxin mercury into the environment, poisoning hundreds of square miles of waterways. And while coal-fired power plants generate about half of America’s electricity, they contribute 80 percent of the total greenhouse gases that result from electricity production.

“In the past few months, people all across America have started to realize that ‘clean coal’ is a dirty lie,” said Waterkeeper Alliance trustee Gloria Reuben. “Coal-fired power plants like Cliffside are causing acid rain, polluting our water and food chain with toxic mercury, and grossly accelerating climate change. The Cliffside Rally is another opportunity to carry our message to the halls of government and to corporate boardrooms.”

Duke Energy is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States. If the Cliffside plant is completed, it will emit over 6 million tons of CO2 every year.

“Recently, the North Carolina Division of Air Quality (DAQ) ruled that Duke Energy’s Cliffside coal plant is a ‘minor source of emissions,’” said Scott Edwards, Waterkeeper Alliance’s legal director. “Talk about a dirty lie.”

Waterkeeper programs in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia have been fighting the coal industry for years.

“Duke Energy's Cliffside power plant has become a national symbol as one of the last bastions of dirty coal and corporate irresponsibility in ignoring economic, health, climate change and other environmental consequences,” said Upper Watauga (N.C.) Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby, one of the organizers of the Cliffside Rally. “North Carolina’s waterways are already overburdened with so much mercury that 26 species of fish are unsafe for pregnant women and children to eat. This dirty coal plant must be stopped for the health and safety of our communities and our waterways.”

Information on Waterkeeper Alliance’s anti-coal campaign is available at www.thedirtylie.com.

Waterkeeper Alliance is one of the world’s fastest growing grassroots environmental organizations with nearly 200 Waterkeepers defending and advocating for rivers, lakes and other waterways on six continents.

Water Quality and Availability is in Crisis Worldwide

2009-04-14T07:48:00.001-07:00

Water distribution in Delhi, India.

Water in the Niger river delta is utilized for sewage and trash dumping as well as swimming and fishing, all in one location.

Two Sudanese children drink water from swamps using plastic tubes fitted with a filter to prevent worm larvae that cause severe diseases. The filter reduces incidence of disease by 70%.

Glaciers that provide water to Europe have lost 50% of their volume this century. Workers at a ski station in Austria cover the snow during the summer to reduce loss due to melting.

Villagers in Coronilla island in Kenya, dig up deep wells searching for water. Being so close to the coastline the aquifer is becoming undrinkable from incursion of brackish water.

The Aral sea, once the fourth largest lake in the World, is now a dusty ship cemetery.

Let's not take a single drop for granted.

Hope in the Mountains

2009-04-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Washington Post

Wednesday, March 25, 2009; Page A15

Yesterday was a great day for the people of Appalachia and for all of America. In a bold departure from Bush-era energy policy, the Obama administration suspended a coal company's permit to dump debris from its proposed mountaintop mining operation into a West Virginia valley and stream. In addition, the administration promised to carefully review upward of 200 such permits awaiting approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

With yesterday's action, President Obama has signaled his intention to save this region. His moratorium on these permits will allow the administration to develop a sensible long-term approach to dealing with this catastrophic method of coal extraction.

I join hundreds of Appalachia's embattled communities in applauding this news. Having flown over the coalfields of Appalachia and walked her ridges, valleys and hollows, I know that this land cannot withstand more abuse. Mountaintop-removal coal mining is the greatest environmental tragedy ever to befall our nation. This radical form of strip mining has already flattened the tops of 500 mountains, buried 2,000 miles of streams, devastated our country's oldest and most diverse temperate forests, and blighted landscapes famous for their history and beauty. Using giant earthmovers and millions of tons of explosives, coal moguls have eviscerated communities, destroyed homes, and uprooted and sickened families with coal and rock dust, and with blasting, flooding and poisoned water, all while providing far fewer jobs than does traditional underground mining.

Click here to read the full article.

TOXIC POLLUTION SHOULDN’T PAY: WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO GET COAL INDUSTRY TO COME CLEAN

2009-02-25T18:56:00.000-08:00

National campaign aims to raise awareness of the devastating effects of coal.

New York, NY, February 24, 2009 – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, announced today the launch of the group’s first national anti-coal campaign. Called “The Dirty Lie,” the campaign is intended to create broader awareness of the destructiveness of coal—from its role in propping up an antiquated fossil-fuel-based economy to its adverse effects on the environment and the health of millions of Americans—and, ultimately, to bring about a change in national energy policy.

“Simply stated, clean coal is a dirty lie,” Kennedy said. “You don’t have to live in the coalfields or in the shadow of a coal-fired power plant to be affected by this filthy industry. Coal causes acid rain and demolishes ecosystems, pollutes our water and food chain with toxic mercury, destroys communities, and is grossly accelerating climate change.”

Waterkeeper programs in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia have been fighting the coal industry for years. “This campaign is a chance for millions of others to join the effort and help make sure our message is heard in corporate boardrooms and the halls of government,” Kennedy said.

“Once they learn the facts, most Americans will demand policies that protect our water and our health and promote an economy built on cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.” Information on the campaign and a petition to sign are available at www.thedirtylie.com.

Waterkeeper Alliance has been joined in this national campaign by actor and Alliance board member Gloria Reuben and several other prominent activists, including Matthew Modine, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. “It’s time to create a new energy future for America,” Reuben said. “We’re going to send a clear message to the coal industry and to Washington through Waterkeeper Alliance’s thousands of grassroots activists: Profits from coal are being made at the expense of our health and the health of our children.”

The campaign’s hub is a website that will house video and editorial content and provide visitors with interactive tools to become anti-coal activists. The campaign is reaching beyond the traditional environmental community by using the most up-to-date online viral marketing techniques, with the goal of galvanizing broad popular interest via the web. No other environmental organization taking on the coal industry has attempted something this innovative.

The website’s core is a list of lies propagated by the coal industry, including the dirtiest lie of all: that coal can ever be clean. The site exposes the lies through scientific studies, legal facts, videos, and graphics, revealing the shocking truths about the destructiveness of the entire coal life cycle.

Every year, U.S. coal-fired power plants release 48 tons of the neurotoxin mercury into the environment, poisoning hundreds of square miles of waterways. And mercury doesn’t just poison ecosystems; it also poisons pregnant women and their babies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one of every six women of childbearing age now has unsafe mercury levels in her blood and, potentially, breast milk, putting more than 410,000 American children born each year at high risk for neurological damage and a grim inventory of illnesses.

And while coal-fired power plants generate about half of America’s electricity, they contribute 80 percent of the total greenhouse gases that result from electricity production. Ocean-level rise and other effects of global warming threaten barrier islands and coastal ecosystems and other irreplaceable, wild areas.

“From the mining process to the disposal of ash after it’s burned, there is no part of the coal industry that is good for the environment, good for people, or good for America,” said Donna Lisenby, Watauga Riverkeeper in North Carolina. Lisenby and John Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, recently made front-page news for their work documenting the real effects of the TVA’s billion-gallon coal sludge spill in Harriman, Tennessee. “Waterkeeper Alliance’s unique grassroots model gives us the ability to carry the campaign to hundreds of locales in a way no other group can,” Wathen said.

“Donna Lisenby and John Wathen are real American heroes,” Kennedy said. “We’re fighting a powerful industry with deep pockets and an absolute determination to win, but thanks to dedicated local leaders like Donna and John, the campaign’s goal is no less than to bring about a fundamental shift in national energy policy.”

The Dirty Lie and Waterkeeper Alliance Featured in the New York Times

2009-02-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from a story by Melanie Warner, featured in the New York Times, "Is America Ready to Quit Coal?"

To read the full article, please visit the NYT website: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/business/15coal.html

"A new campaign against coal by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmentalist, and the Waterkeeper Alliance is called “The Dirty Lie.” Other clean-energy advocates are equally passionate.

“If you care about being a leader on solving global warming problems, you don’t build new coal plants, especially ones that don’t have a way to capture carbon,” said Stephen A. Smith, executive director of the Southeastern Alliance for Clean Energy. (Mr. Smith’s group was not involved in the decorating of the Duke executive’s lawn. That was the handiwork of a small group called Rising Tide, in Asheville.)

This green chorus also includes Al Gore, the former vice president, Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, who has called for a moratorium on new coal plants."

Mr. Reid and other Democratic leaders in Congress, emboldened by support from the Obama administration, have promised climate change legislation by the end of the year. While the exact outlines are yet to be determined, lawmakers are discussing plans to force companies to reduce carbon emissions or be required to pay some form of penalty."

TVA Coal Ash Sampling Trip - Please Watch!

2009-01-23T09:17:00.001-08:00

Santa Monica Baykeeper and No Way on OceanWay Coalition Celebrate the End of Woodside’s LNG Project

2009-01-21T11:47:00.000-08:00

Santa Monica Baykeeper led the fight to protect the environment and coastal communities

LOS ANGELES, January 15, 2009 – With Santa Monica Baykeeper leading the charge, a local coalition of community organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens successfully placed enough pressure on Woodside Natural Gas Inc. forcing the company to stop pursuing a proposed LNG project.

“Woodside’s decision to stop trying to build an LNG project off our coast is great news for the environment and for all Los Angeles residents,” said Tom Ford, executive director of Santa Monica Baykeeper. “The project was never welcome in Santa Monica Bay and this is my version of a perfect ending, saying good-bye and good riddance.”

Woodside announced today that the company has suspended work on their proposed off-shore LNG project that would have imported LNG on massive tankers across the Pacific Ocean to a location twenty-seven miles off the coast of LAX.

Congresswoman Jane Harman also welcomed the news. “Having an off-shore LNG project near LAX and our coastal communities was never a good idea,” said Harman. “I’m relieved that we will no longer have to worry about having a security and environmental threat in our backyard.”

“The project was bad for local communities, bad for the environment and bad for California,” said Diane Moss, a local community activist and coalition member. “This is a victory for green and renewable energy options. Now we can focus on investing in a greener future without relying solely on fossil fuels.”

Other local elected officials and organizations that opposed Woodside’s LNG project include former State Senator Sheila Kuehl, Assemblymember Julia Brownley, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, the City of Santa Monica, the City of Malibu, the Sierra Club, Pacific Environment, Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific Palisades Residents Association.

"Sludge" Documentary

2009-01-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

Watch Robert Salyer's excellent documentary film "Sludge" (about a huge coal slurry waste disaster in eastern Kentucky) available free on line through the end of January. You can view online now at:

http://appalshop.org/sludge/

The film steadfastly and fearlessly documents the truth, lies, coverup and intimidation that occurred before, during and after this terrible coal sludge disaster. The similarities between what happened in 2000 in Kentucky and what happened over Christmas 2008 in Kingston, Tennessee are eerily chilling.

The entire process of using coal for energy is devastating to people and the environment. From the mining process to the disposal of ash after it is burned, there is no part of the coal industry that is good for the environment, good for waterways or good for people.

Clean coal is a Dirty Lie. Watch the video to see just how dirty and just how devastating it was to a local waterway and the community in Kentucky in 2000.

Waterkeepers Sounding Off on Coal Ash Spill

2009-01-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

The Brockovich Report, published by Erin Brockovich is another outlet for concern on the recent coal ash spill in Tennessee.

From John L. Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper:

"This was, in my opinion. the worst man-made environmental disaster in American history.

Regardless of the toxicity of the contained products, the shear bulk of material that was callously and negligently allowed to escape into that river is a crime. It is a crime against the people of Tenn. and the people of the U.S. as a collective.

This WAS a waterway of the U.S."

Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation

2009-01-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

This article is an excerpt from an article written by Shaila Dewan for the New York Times. To read the full version, please log on to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/us/07sludge.html?hp

The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States — most of them unregulated and unmonitored — that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.

Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.

View the slideshow here: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/01/07/us/0107-COALASH_index.html

Country's Largest Coal Ash Spill

2009-01-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Metal Levels Found High in Tributary After Spill

This article is from the New York Times. Click here to read the full text. By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: January 1, 2009

An environmental advocacy group’s tests of river water and ash near the site of a huge coal ash spill in East Tennessee showed levels of arsenic, lead, chromium and other metals at 2 to 300 times higher than drinking water standards, the group said Thursday.

The findings far exceed levels reported by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency or the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Those agencies have reported elevated levels of thallium, lead and arsenic found near the spill but have not released the full results of those tests.

The ash spill, which appears to be the largest in the country’s history, occurred Dec. 22 when an earthen dike at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a T.V.A. coal utility, gave way, spreading a billion gallons of wet coal ash, known to contain heavy metals, across about 300 acres and into tributaries of the Tennessee River.

The independent test results were released by Appalachian Voices, an environmental advocacy group based in Boone, N.C. The tests were conducted using standard E.P.A. methods, said Dr. Shea Tuberty, an environmental toxicologist at Appalachian State University who helped analyze the results.

Paul E. Davis, the director of water pollution control for the Tennessee environmental department, said he would have his staff compare the results of the tests with other sample results. “If the work that Appalachian State has done indicates that there’s been a violation, we’re very interested,” Mr. Davis said.

Appalachian Voices sampled water from three locations — near the spill site, about half a mile downstream and about two miles downstream — and found eight metals that exceeded drinking water limits. At the two-mile point, arsenic was at a level 35 times the drinking water limit. The group also expressed concern that standards for fish and aquatic life, which are stricter than drinking water standards, in part because heavy metals accumulate in animal tissue over time, had been exceeded.

“These are some of the most astonishing water-quality sampling results I’ve ever seen in my 10 years of working on rivers,” said Donna Lisenby, a spokeswoman for Appalachian Voices who helped collect the samples.

A news release from the group included a statement by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman of the national Waterkeeper Alliance, who said, “Although these results are preliminary, we want to release them because of the public health concern and because we believe the T.V.A. and E.P.A. aren’t being candid.”

To see an amazing aerial video of the spill - the big hunks and chunks in the river are mounds of coal ash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGmVCABMRRQ

There is better aerial footage but you have to watch an Applebees commercial first - go to the link below, then scroll down to the "Most Popular" section and find the button that says "aerial footage"

http://www.wbir.com/video/default.aspx?aid=74330

The local media are downplaying the spill, but the Nashville newspaper (The Tennessean) has a great article, posted below.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081223/GREEN02/812230370/1001/RSS6001

Waterkeeper Alliance Denounces E.P.A. For Caving In to Agriculture Special Interests; Opposes Today’s CERCLA/EPCRA “Midnight” Regulation

2008-12-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

Press Statement

December 12, 2008
Contact: Michele Merkel 202.257-0877 Hannah Connor 914.674-0622 x20

Waterkeeper Alliance Denounces E.P.A. For Caving In to Agriculture Special Interests; Opposes Today’s CERCLA/EPCRA “Midnight” Regulation.

In yet another lame-duck, Friday afternoon rulemaking, the Bush Administration E.P.A. today created a giant special loophole for factory farms. Under today’s rule change, large chicken production facilities, hog confinements, and cattle feeding operations would no longer have to report hazardous releases of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other toxic gases. Currently, two of our nation’s most important environmental laws, CERCLA (“Superfund”) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRKA), require that all polluters who discharge massive amounts of dangerous air pollutants, including factory farms, report these releases. EPA’s efforts to relieve factory farms of this moral and legal responsibility are the direct result of pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists—in spite of findings by its own scientists that toxic gases from factory farms can pose serious health risks, including respiratory illness, lung inflammation and increasing vulnerability to asthma.

“The Bush Administration has once again traded the health of rural residents and the environment for special interests,” according to Waterkeeper Alliance Chesapeake Regional Coordinator Michele Merkel. “This rule is bad public policy and has absolutely no legal basis; therefore, Waterkeeper Alliance will likely challenge this rule in Court.”

The health threats from factory farm air emissions are real and the reporting requirements gutted by this rule are important for communities struggling with pollution from feedlots, swine and poultry operations. A dairy in Oregon was forced to report its ammonia emissions as required by CERCLA and EPCRA; that disclosure revealed the dairy to be the third largest ammonia emitter in the United States. In one high-profile instance, EPA relied on emissions data reported by Ohio’s largest egg producer to take action to halt dangerously high concentrations of hazardous air pollutants released into a neighboring community, securing a $1.4 million settlement for local air pollution controls. Sudden exposure can also be fatal: one study found that 19 workers at factory farms in Iowa were killed from hydrogen sulfide released during manure agitation.

“Not only does this rule give polluters a free pass, it also endangers communities and waterways by allowing EPA to shirk its environmental protection responsibilities in a game of hide and no seek,” says Hannah Connor, a Waterkeeper Alliance attorney who deals with the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture.

For more information on this subject, and today’s rule, see:

2008-12-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

Check out Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony on Bush's last minute decision making affecting the environment.

"We are extremely concerned by the recent flurry of environmental and public health regulations being proposed or finalized by government agencies such as EPA and the Department of Interior. In the coming weeks, the most environmentally damaging presidency in American history comes to its well-deserved end. However, President Bush leaves in his wake thousands of miles of polluted and degraded waterways across America."

For example, Bush's last minute changes to mountain top removal rules:

"The Bush administration on Friday will publish its final rule to revoke key water quality protections, a move that critics say helps to protect mountaintop removal coal mining from tougher restrictions.

The changes approved by the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement are scheduled for publication in Friday's Federal Register.

Last week, the White House and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency paved the way for OSM to finalize its more than five-year effort to rewrite the 1983 stream "buffer zone" rule.

Issuance of the final rule on Friday easily meets a Dec. 19 deadline, allowing the rule to take effect before President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20, and making it harder for Obama to revoke the rule if he chose to do so."

2008-12-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

Hearing to Investigate Last-Minute Bush Energy and Environment Rulemakings

Interior Department Announces Alarming Rule to Skirt Congressional Oversight Authority and Push Forward on Illegal Uranium Mining

This hearing will be WECAST LIVE, click HERE to watch.
For testimony, photos and video highlights, please CLICK HERE.

The announcement by the Interior Department of a new rule eliminating Congress’s authority to prevent new mining on public lands escalated concerns about the Bush administration's last ditch efforts to push through major regulatory rule changes to energy and environmental policies. From global warming to water quality to endangered species to clean air, the Bush administration is pushing harder than ever to advance its anti-environmental agenda by rescinding, changing, or issuing rules, with negative consequences for our natural resources, environment, and America’s energy policy.

A panel of environmental and regulatory experts will discuss the ramifications of these last-minute rulemakings at a hearing tomorrow before Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

The Select Committee recently released a report detailing these frightening possible significant regulatory rule changes by the Bush administration in its final days. The report is entitled “Past is Prologue: For Energy and the Environment, the Bush Administration's Last 100 Days Could Rival the First 100” and is available HERE. It highlights the major issues the public and the media should look out for in the closing days of an administration that possesses a sharp deregulatory bent.

WHAT: Select Committee hearing: "Approaching Midnight: Oversight of the Bush Administration's Last-Minute Rulemakings."

WHERE: 210 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC and on the web at globalwarming.house.gov

WHEN: Thursday, December 11th, 2008, 10:00 AM

WHO:
Mr. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chairman, Waterkeeper Alliance
Ms. Jamie Rappaport Clark, Executive Vice President, Defenders of Wildlife
Mr. John Walke, Clean Air Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
Mr. Jeffrey R. Holmstead, Partner, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Helping the Chesapeake

2008-12-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Read the Full Article at Washington Post Online

There are two big contributors to the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay: warm and polluted stormwater runoff stemming from overdevelopment, and agricultural runoff -- a polite way of saying there's an overabundance of manure in the water coming from dairy, hog and poultry farms. Maryland is pushing to limit both by taking key parcels of land off the market and devising rules to prevent mounds of chicken manure (a.k.a. litter) from leaching into waterways.

Pending the approval of the Board of Public Works, the state will spend $72 million to buy 9,242 acres of prime Maryland waterfront in fast-growing St. Mary's, Charles, Cecil and Worcester counties. Rather than add to the expanse of paved surfaces, which have increased 41 percent in the state since 1990, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced last week that the nearly 20 miles of shoreline that the properties encompass would be off-limits to developers but would be publicly accessible as trails, parks or beaches. This will keep the natural pollutant-filtering ecology of those areas intact.

Poultry is big business in the Free State. Chicken farms generate $845 million annually for the state's economy. The chickens themselves generate 650 million pounds of litter annually, making agricultural runoff the single biggest contributor of nitrogen and phosphorus to the bay. Both create the algae blooms and oxygen-starved "dead zones" that kill the fish, crabs and oysters that have literally fed the region's growth. For 10 years, efforts to regulate poultry farms have been stymied by a mix of industry pressure and government acquiescence.

In Maryland, Focus on Poultry Industry Pollution

2008-12-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

Photos Credit: Rick Dove
Fish sores appear after water contamination with manure runoff.
By Ian Urbina

WILLARDS, Md. — Standing before a two-story-tall pile of chicken manure, Lee Richardson pondered how times had changed.

How to handle the 650 million pounds of chicken manure produced in the state each year has sparked a fierce debate between environmentalists and the state’s powerful poultry industry. State
officials hope to bring Maryland in line with most other states next month by enacting new rules for where, how and how long chicken farmers can spread the manure on their fields or store it in outdoor piles.

“We don’t let hog or dairy farms spread their waste unregulated, and we wouldn’t let a town of 25,000 people dump human manure untreated on open lands,” said Gerald W. Winegrad, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland who is a former state senator. “So why should we allow a farm with 150,000 chickens do it?”

Under the state’s proposed rules, 75 to 100 of the 800 largest poultry farmers in Maryland would have to apply for permits to handle manure. State officials would also begin inspecting these farms unannounced and levying heavy fines if violations are not eventually corrected. The rules would not affect smaller farms.

Michele Merkel, a lawyer with the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental advocacy group, said the permits did not go far enough. Too few farms would be required to have them, Ms. Merkel said, and they allow farmers to pile the waste in their fields open to the rain for 90 days, while most other states permit it to be uncovered for only 14 days.

Maryland is most famous for its blue crabs, oysters and watermen, so it has a lot to lose from polluting these waters, Ms. Merkel said.

“That’s exactly why it’s never made sense to me,” she said, “that the state is so unwilling to really regulate one of the bay’s biggest polluters.”

The economic might of the poultry industry is certainly part of the reason.

Read the full story at NYT.com

Water Laws May Be Used to Fight Warming

2008-11-19T08:24:00.001-08:00

by Andrew C. Revkin

Environmental groups have sought to force the federal government to restrict carbon dioxide emissions using the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act (because of threats to polar bears from global warming) and other federal laws, and now they are poised to add the Clean Water Act to the list.
The Center for Biological Diversity says it is prepared to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to use the water law to respond to the threat of ocean acidification. This is the drop in seawater pH as the oceans absorb an estimated 22 million tons of carbon dioxide from the 80 million tons emitted each day by human activities. The result is a buildup of carbonic acid, which is lowering the pH of seawater. That trend toward acid conditions could threaten corals and plankton with shells containing calcium, biologists have warned.

Taking Lessons, and Confidence, From the Water

2008-11-19T08:08:00.001-08:00

By Sara Rimer

She had rowed a boat, in the East River. She had learned to swim. She had eaten an oyster; it was gross, yes, but it was a challenge, and she had met that challenge. And now, in a final rite of passage, she was at the helm of the Lettie G. Howard, the historic 125-foot schooner that is her school’s classroom-on-the-Hudson.
A little later, Jennifer would write in her class journal, “I feel as if I can do anything.” Even, she confided, make the honor roll.

Learning Gets A Green Face

2008-11-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

By Natalie Peretsman

On the border between Brooklyn and Queens, Newtown Creek’s unusually green waters churn in the wake of a small boat. Researchers aboard patrol the shore for pollution. A recycling center operates to the left, with a huge magnet sorting colorful piles of rubbish. On the right, the white domes of a sewage treatment plant loom.
The researchers click their cameras and plot each structure on a map. The real gems to find, though, are CSOs. What’s a CSO? Ask any of the researchers, and they will tell you because they learned it in class. These ninth graders from New York Harbor School in Brooklyn have eyes trained for finding CSOs, or combined sewer overflows, which are unmarked pipes emptying excess runoff and sewage into the creek.

Read The Article in full At ScienceLine

U.S. Blueprint for Clean Water

2008-11-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

From San Francisco Bay to New York’s Hudson River, the health of America’s waterways are in crisis. Waterkeepers from across the globe have a plan to save them.

As we await President-elect Obama’s new administration, the most environmentally damaging presidency in American history nears its end. President Bush leaves in his wake thousands of miles of polluted and degraded waterways across America.

The Bush Administration repeatedly affirmed its loyalty to industrial polluters by issuing rules that undercut environmental law and underfunded federal environmental programs.

Waterkeeper Alliance’s U.S. Blueprint for Clean Water offers a new agenda for strengthening U.S. environmental protection to restore America’s ailing rivers,lakes, streams, wetlands and coastal waters. Unique in both its scope and depth, the Blueprint is the work of more than a hundred clean water activists, many of whom not only advocate for water but work on the water in communities across America and around the world.

Click here to read the full report.

Click here to read the President's blog on the Huffington Post: "Can President Obama Save the Environment?"

Pact unveiled that would remove Klamath River dams

2008-11-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

By JEFF BARNARD

The Bush administration has announced a nonbinding agreement for removing four dams along the Klamath River, a key to resolving the basin's long-standing trouble balancing the water needs of farms and fish. While not a final answer, the deal represents a milestone toward what would become the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history. It also would help resolve issues at the root of the 2001 shut-off of irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland under enforcement by U.S. marshals and the 2002 deaths of 70,000 adult salmon in the river after irrigation water was restored.

The agreement in principle reached in Sacramento, Calif., was to be signed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Interior, the utility PacifiCorp and the governors of Oregon and California. According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, the agreement is a roadmap for turning the dams over to a nonfederal entity and starting to remove them by 2020. Though the Bush administration has opposed removing hydroelectric dams elsewhere, Interior Department Counselor Michael Bogert said it recognized that removing the four dams could help create "a comprehensive approach to deal with the issues and images we saw in the Klamath Basin."

"Fisherma'am" Proposes 28th Amendment: Separation Of Corporation And State

2008-11-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

By Chelsea Green

Every so often an idea comes along that rings with such clarity and purpose that it ignites the imaginations of millions of people. That spark of excitement becomes hope, hope becomes action, action becomes community, and that community grows to become a movement. Marine biologist, author, fisherma'am, and Exxon Valdez survivor, Dr. Riki Ott has such an idea.

Exxon's recently reported record profits marks a new height of American corporate corruption and influence over our federal government--corporations find more protection under the law than American citizens, health and safety regulations are stripped away to serve profits ahead of people, politicians serve only their corporate backers, and our environment is falling victim to the lustful greed of this disaster capitalism. How did it come to this?

Beware of Bush's goodbye gifts to the business lobby

2008-11-10T08:52:00.000-08:00

By Fran Wood

As historians and citizens begin speculating on the legacy of George W. Bush, his administration is working on a late entry that could be among his most enduring: changing scads of rules affecting business, the environment and the protection of consumers.

Hint: Don't expect in most cases that he will be coming down on the side of people who want cleaner air or safer toys.

Lobbyists bent on easing regulations for everything from scallop fishing to energy production to mountaintop mining have been lining up to press their requests on the administration in its last days. If they are successful, rules that took years to put in place can be diminished, if not scrapped, with the flourish of a Bic ballpoint.

Read More at NJ Blog

In Bayonne, Students Stake Nature’s Claim With Oysters

2008-11-10T08:47:00.001-08:00

By Kevin Coyne
New York Times

The eighth graders picked their way down along a gray, stony slope that didn’t look much like a beach, the word their teacher kept using to describe this spot beneath the rainbow arch of the Bayonne Bridge. They were heading for the water that laps all around their peninsular hometown, water they rarely get near enough to examine.

“I’ve never been this close to the water in my life,” Kaitlin Crowley, 13, said to one of her friends from the Henry E. Harris School. “I’m a little scared.”

The tide in the Kill Van Kull was going out on this sunny October day, and it had left a line of wrack like the dirty ring around a drained bathtub: cans, bottles, tire fragments, random shards of plastic, and at least one thing that didn’t look as if it had been made and discarded by human hands: a small tuft of red algae.

“Look, there is life here,” said Tom Tokar, holding the algae up to show the 18 students he was leading. “That’s a good sign.”

A good sign indeed, given their purpose: to see whether a creature that once flourished all around here, but that vanished long ago as refineries and ports and factories settled along the shoreline, might grow again in this unlikely ecosystem, the turnpike of waterways.

Read More at the New York Times

Photo By Mary DiBiase Blaich

Georgia Adds 598 Acres To USDA’S Wetlands Reserve Program

2008-11-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

More than two million acres enrolled, nationwide, surpassing national goal

ATHENS, November 3, 2008—USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State
Conservationist James E. Tillman, Sr., announced today that in 2008, Georgia landowners have
enrolled an additional 598 acres of land into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wetland Reserve Program (WRP). To date, more than two million acres have been enrolled in WRP, nationally, helping exceed the Federal government’s 3-year goal of increasing the number and size of America’s wetlands.

“Thanks to the stewardship ethic of our farmers and ranchers, people here in Georgia and across the nation enjoy the benefits of more and better wetlands,” Tillman said. “I want to personally thank everyone here in Georgia who worked so hard and committed so much of their resources to achieve this incredible conservation milestone.” Georgia landowners have enrolled 14,00 acres in WRP since the program was introduced in 1996. An additional 3,550 acres were restored, or are in the process of restoration. These acres occurred in existing WRP easements. Restoration included removing culverts that impede flood water movement in bottlomland hardwoods and replacing with low water crossings and the construction of ditch plugs to restore the hydrology in wetlands that where drained years ago. Due to the land being burned by the fire in April 2007, in January and February 2008, the NRCS assisted landowners who planted 500,050 Cypress trees and 50,000 Longleaf Pines in Roundabout Swamp, in Atkinson County.

Check out Additional Information About WRP In Georgia

Robert F. Kennedy: Environmental Protection Agency Head?

2008-11-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- reportedly under consideration by Barack Obama to head the Environmental Protection Agency -- said that if asked, he would serve.
Expressing deep satisfaction -- almost relief -- with the election of Barack Obama yesterday, Robert Kennedy Jr., the longtime environmental activist and member of the Democratic Party's most cherished family, said he would serve the next president if asked.
"You know what, I would be of service in any way that the administration asked me to be," Kennedy told the Huffington Post. "But I am also very happy and I believe I am being effective doing the stuff I am doing currently."
More from Politico:
President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico.
...
The selection of Kennedy would be a shrewd early move for the new presidential team. Obama advisers said the nomination would please both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
It also would raise the profile of the EPA, which would help endear Obama to liberals who may be disappointed on other issues important to the Democratic left because of budget restrictions.
The EPA enforces clean air and clear water laws. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and son of the late senator and attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, has long championed a cleaner water supply for New York City.
As an officer and attorney for the environmental watch group Riverkeeper, Kennedy has taken on governments and companies for polluting the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.

Q&A Jeff Odefey, Waterkeeper Alliance Staff Attorney

2008-11-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

Jeff Odefey responds to EPA's final rule on CAFO operations in Waterkeeper Alliance et al. v. EPA, 399 F.3d 486, signed on October 31, 2008

Q: How will this rule affect human and environmental health?
A: Unfortunately, it’s hard to see a positive affect on human or environmental health. Essentially, the result of the rule will be that fewer and fewer CAFOs will fall under a state’s Clean Water Act permitting program. These programs are the most important tool intended to protect our communities and watersheds from harmful pollution. Without meaningful restrictions on CAFO operations, any government oversight, or mechanism for individual accountability, there will be fewer means to prevent discharges from CAFOs.

Q: When EPA says "discharge," is this an intentional discharge, or the liquid manure that leaks, overflows, etc. from the manure lagoons?
A: As a Clean Water Act term of art, “discharge” can be an intentional or unintentional release of pollutants to surface waters, including leaks, overflows, etc from lagoons. Additionally, in many areas of the country, subsurface tile drains can carry CAFO waste pollutants from fields directly to ditches, creeks, rivers, etc. Flows from these outlets in some circumstances can be “discharges.” The new EPA rule pretends to prevent discharges, but contains no actual requirements that can guarantee that this standard is met.

Q: Why was this rule pushed through? Will it benefit Americans in any way?
A: The rule is a response to a court decision from nearly 4 years ago. While the court’s ruling required some changes to the CAFO rule that EPA released in 2003, this new rule goes beyond the court’s requirements to undue much of the beneficial effects of the old rule. For instance, the new rule allows CAFOs to certify, on their word, that they will not discharge, and thus do not need permits. Instead, EPA could have clearly defined that CAFOs of certain types, in certain locations, etc do or propose to discharge, and required these facilities to obtain permits. Essentially, the new rule benefits the large CAFO operators by allowing them to escape scrutiny and compliance with environmental protection laws. It does not benefit sustainable farmers who must continue to compete with factory farms that push the costs of treating their waste onto the general public. This unfair regulatory subsidy undermines the health and quality of life for many rural Americans.

Q: What can people do in protest of this rule? Eat local, eat organic?
A: Certainly the market is one of the most powerful tools that we all have. By refusing to purchase meat or dairy products from CAFOs, or the vertically integrated companies that market these products, we support a sustainable alternative and keep local farmers on the land. As fewer CAFOs seek permits from state agencies, enforcement becomes their best tool for ensuring that local waterways are not contaminated by CAFO waste. Citizens play an increasingly important role in this dynamic – reports of discharges or improper waste management practices can be a vital resource for state officials.-To your knowledge, if an industrial farm says it won't discharge, will itbe monitored in any way?
The short, and unfortunate answer is, “no.” There will be no reason or method, outside of an enforcement investigation, for a state agency to monitor the operations of each CAFO.

Q: If there is some sort of big storm, which there are a lot of lately, how will it affect manure lagoons--even ones that are set up to not discharge?
A: This is a critical question. Most so-called “no discharge” operations and lagoons are designed to standards that are, in turn, intended to prevent runoff during storms up to a certain size. This “design storm,” is often the 25 year-24 hour storm, meaning the amount of rain likely to occur in a storm so severe that it’s only likely to occur once every 25 years. The trouble is, storms this size occur far more frequently, and are becoming more severe as our climate changes. A CAFO that is designed to withstand a 25 year or 100 year storm will, by design, discharge in larger storms. This is one of the key failures of EPA’s new rule – it simply does not incorporate a true “no discharge” standard for CAFO design and operation.

Read the full text on EPA's website

Yadkin has its first Riverkeeper

2008-10-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Salisbury Post

by Mark Wineka The Yadkin River will soon have a full-time, paid advocate.

Dean Naujoks has been hired as the first Yadkin Riverkeeper, effective Nov. 14.

The founding board of Yadkin Riverkeeper Inc. announced Naujoks' selection at its annual meeting Saturday on High Rock Lake. Naujoks is the former Upper Neuse Riverkeeper, a position he resigned Aug. 1 after seven years.

He is a charismatic leader and brings a wealth of knowledge about what it takes to be a riverkeeper," said board president Zoe Gamble Hanes, an environmental attorney in Forsyth County.

Hanes said Naujoks will become a voice and watchdog for the Yadkin, working closely with citizens, local officials, state regulators, inspection officers and environmental groups.

He'll do such things as appear at hearings related to the river, review permits issued for point-source pollution, identify polluters with a record of noncompliance, work with municipalities on stormwater runoff ordinances, have input on a pollution control plan for High Rock Lake and make sure developers use best management practices for erosion control.

Feds list Cook Inlet belugas as endangered species

2008-10-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

By GEORGE BRYSON and DON HUNTER
Anchorage Daily News

After years of studies by federal scientists and lawsuits by conservation groups, Cook Inlet's fragile population of beluga whales was officially listed as an endangered species Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"We have determined that the Cook Inlet beluga whale is in danger of extinction throughout its range," the agency said in its decision.

Scientists with NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service will have up to a year to decide which parts of the inlet are "critical habitat" for the whales -- areas so important to their survival that they merit special protections.

The decision was hailed by the conservation and environmental groups that pressed for the endangered designation, and by the president of the Cook Inlet Marine Mammal Council. It was greeted with disappointment and apprehension by government and industry officials who say they are worried the endangered species listing will bring expensive and time-consuming changes to the way they do business in the inlet.

Getty Images: Junko Kimura

Energy Policy Recommendations from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

2008-10-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Polluted Rain Run-off Poses Threat to Water Systems

2008-10-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

In a landmark decision, the Washington state pollution board has ruled that flow of polluted stormwater into local water systems must be reduced.

Lee Hochberg reports on the ruling and controversy over the impact of new home developments on the problem.

LEE HOCHBERG, NewsHour Correspondent: When it rains -- which is pretty common in the Northwest -- most people look at the sky. Water pollution experts look at the ground.

And what they see disturbs them: chemicals, and motor oil, and herbicides washing from neighborhood streets and yards into creeks and bays.

Half of U.S. water pollution comes from storm water run-off. In Seattle, it's responsible for more than 70 percent of the zinc and copper that winds up in Puget Sound, heavy metals that are toxic and kill Sockeye, King and Coho salmon, protected under the Endangered Species Act.

CURT CRAWFORD, Storm Water Manager, King County, Washington: Well, this is the typical type of development that we're seeing now. And there are better ways of doing it.

LEE HOCHBERG: King County's storm water manager Curt Crawford took us to a typical subdivision outside Seattle. Though it's only 24 acres, as many as 200,000 gallons of polluted water drain off of it after a normal rainfall.

CURT CRAWFORD: When you clear those trees away and you put in these roads, impervious surface, you put in new roofs, it can be as much as a 300 percent increase in run-off volume.

Read the rest of this transcript, listen to audio or view the video on PBS online.

Indian Riverkeeper Initiates Groundbreaking Action Lawsuit

2008-10-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

In 2003, Indian Riverkeeper sued the US Army Corps of Engineers in a NEPA

action over a lake "drawdown" (to clean choking vegetation out of the lake) near Kissimmee Florida. The project made Lake Okeechobee dangerously high and thus spurred destructive water releases into the Indian River Lagoon estuary. We sought an injunction to stop the "drawdown."

The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) intervened and agreed that they, by finding sugar farms and other locations in the Everglades that would retain the water, would provide the remedy recommended by Indian Riverkepper. The judge threw out this decision. Indian Riverkeeper blocked additional damaging releases that year and established standing and damages in Corps actions that led to releases into the estuary.

Currently, Indian Riverkeeper is participating in a groundbreaking action lawsuit on behalf of riparian property owners on the estuary to hold the US Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) accountable for the loss of those rights when discharges destroyed the estuarine life in the water body.

Visit this Rivers Coalition page to view the lawsuit.

More about past victories in the Everglades and against the Corps.

George Jones is the Indian Riverkeeper.
Kevin Stinnette is the Board president for Indian Riverkeeper.

Wang Yongchen , Beijing Beiyun (North Canal) Waterkeeper Featured in Time Magazine

2008-10-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

Read the full version at TIME online.

"Wang has now turned to influencing policy. A plan to build 13 dams along the Nu River was postponed in 2004 by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao after fierce opposition from Wang and fellow activists. That fight isn't over, but Wang is working on other ways of making China's green movement more effective. She organizes monthly meetings of reporters to raise pressing issues, and is also pushing for better environmental and public-disclosure laws in China. "Sometimes it's very lonely," she says. "People support the environment, but say there's nothing you can do about it." Wang is heartening proof that they're wrong."

ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY MARC BURCKHARDT

Energy versus Water: Solving Both Crises Together

2008-10-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

by Michael E. Webber

Read the full version of this article at Scientific American online.

"Water and energy are the two most fundamental ingredients of modern civilization. Without water, people die. Without energy, we cannot grow food, run computers, or power homes, schools or offices. As the world’s population grows in number and affluence, the demands for both resources are increasing faster than ever.

Woefully underappreciated, however, is the reality that each of these precious commodities might soon cripple our use of the
other. We consume massive quantities of water to generate energy, and we consume massive quantities of energy to deliver clean water. Many people are concerned about the perils of peak oil—running out of cheap oil. A few are voicing concerns about peak water. But almost no one is addressing the tension between the two: water restrictions are hampering solutions for generating more energy, and energy problems, particularly rising prices, are curtailing efforts to supply more clean water."

2008-09-25T13:11:00.001-07:00

We are proud to announce that we have a new South Riverkeeper, Diana Muller!

South River Federation, Inc.
2830 Solomons Island Rd., Ste. B
Edgewater, MD 21037
410-224-3802 (office)
410-224-0364 (fax)
riverkeeperdiana@southriverfederation.net
www.southriverfederation.net

Press Release - U.S. Court Upholds Decision To Keep Water Safe From Construction Pollution

2008-09-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jeffrey Odefey, Waterkeeper Alliance, 914/674-0622 x17 or Elizabeth Heyd, NRDC, 202/289- 2424

U.S. Court Upholds Decision To Keep Water Safe From Construction Pollution

WASHINGTON (September 18, 2008)– Today, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Pasadena, California, affirmed a decision that EPA must set standards to control storm water pollution from strip malls, subdivisions and other new development. EPA and the National Association of Homebuilders had appealed the lower court’s ruling from 2006, but the U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Waterkeeper Alliance. The decision will help to ensure that construction site pollution won’t cause beach closings, waterborne disease, flooding, fish kills and contaminated drinking water supplies. The states of New York and Connecticut supported the conservation groups. “This decision will go along way towards protecting America’s streams and rivers from the construction and development industry,” said Melanie Shepherdson, staff attorney at NRDC. “The court made it very clear that EPA can’t just shirk its responsibilities to reign in pollution from this industry.” Excessive sediment, which is often the result of construction activity, is one of the leading causes of impairment of the nation’s waters. Construction runoff threatens rivers, pollutes clean water sources and leads to excessive plant growth, like algae and nuisance plants, in water bodies. “For too long EPA has turned away from the real work of protecting our waters. This decision forcefully reminds them of their duty to the American people and our waters,” said Jeffrey Odefey, staff attorney at Waterkeeper Alliance. “It’s time that EPA and the building industry demonstrate real leadership and took the necessary steps to prevent the destruction of our lakes, rivers and streams.” To read the court’s decision, go to http://docs.nrdc.org/water/wat_08091801A.pdf.

Major Sewer Spill on Hurricane Creek

2008-09-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

On 09/13/08, the city of Tuscaloosa, AL through gross negligence to maintain the sewer line right of way, allowed an estimated millions of gallons of raw, untreated sewage to enter a small tributary of Cottondale Creek. It then flowed into Hurricane Creek, where John Wathen is the Hurricane Creekkeeper, a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance.

News Story Link
Video Link "Sewage in Hurricane Creek"
Photo Link of the Overflow and the "Fix"

From John Wathen:

"Mayor Walt Maddox stated that my accusations were unfounded, without merit, and mean spirited.

You decide.

Why are people living in the police jurisdiction any less important than folks living in the city limits? (We can't vote in city elections). The city spent thousands if not millions on a advertising campaigns surrounding Lake Tuscaloosa. They blame everything under the sun except the truth. Poor Planning!

Shiny new plaques are posted all around the Lake Tuscaloosa warning people about bacteria counts coming from cows and hogs and "suspected failing septic tanks". On Hurricane Creek, where hundreds of people come to swim on a warm day (like this past weekend), picnic, let the kids and dogs run in the water while the city dumps raw sewage into the creek by the estimated millions of gallons with no warning to the public at all.

Instead of shiny new warning plaques, the city sewer head, Jimmy Junkin, called Friends of Hurricane Creek and informed us that we needed to tell people what had happened and to avoid the creek.

For anyone who thinks I am overstating or as the mayor put it "making unfounded accusations" read the PDF by N.R.D.C entitled "Swimming in Sewage". After you have read it think back to the picture I have attached to this e-mail. Why did the city so callously allow this to happen? Why do we not have signs on our swimming beaches? The city workers posted a sewer spill warning that was deep in the woods away from anyone who might come in contact with the material left on the ground. They did not think it was important enough to go 1 (one) mile away and warn swimming children and their parents of the danger they were in while swimming in sewage, in the city limits.

Let your mayor know what you think about not posting health issues in the police jurisdiction.

I would recommend to anyone who has come in contact with water from Cottondale Creek or Hurricane Creek in the last week, pay attention. This has been overflowing for quite some time now. The city sewer people have refused to return any of my calls since Saturday morning so I do not know any more than what I saw and documented. If you have developed any unexplained rashes, infections, flu-like symptoms should see a doctor at once. Tell them you were exposed to raw sewage.

John L. Wathen
Hurricane Creekkeeper,
Friends of Hurricane Creek
www.hurricanecreek.org

Earth Savers Interviews Steve Fleischli, President of the Waterkeeper Alliance

2008-09-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

Read More on the Earth Savers Blog

MR: What does Global Warming mean to you?

SF: I tend to think of global warming in terms of its impact on our water resources. I think it is critically important that we reduce our carbon emissions and accept responsibility for humanity's contribution to the problem. I also think that it is really important for people to understand that even if someone doesn't accept the strong science on the human contribution to the problem, climate change likely is going to happen in some form or another. Even if it is not caused by humans, the impacts are still going to be the same: Sea level rise. Drought in some places. Flooding in other places. Changes in drinking water supplies. Impacts to coral reefs. We have got to take this seriously and do everything we can to prevent these types of impacts to both water supply and water quality. And where greenhouse gas emission reductions are not enough, we have to start preparing our communities, our farmers, our fisheries, for a changing climate. This seem to be lost in the dialogue.

MR: What do you think most likely get in people’s way when it comes to being in action or embracing the green movement?

SF: There is a lot of information out there and it can be overwhelming at times. There is a lot to think about. I learn new things every day - and I get to do this for a living. Most people have enough to the think about with taking care of family, paying the bills, etc. Often there are also conflicting messages by those with a vested interest in a certain outcome. The role that government should play. The role business should play. People need choices to be clear and easy. People need to understand the economic benefits of good environmental policy and to understand that it is good for all of us in the long term. That is hard sometimes when the prospect of short term gain is dangled out there.

Bicycle For A Day (BFAD)

2008-09-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION! LET'S REDUCE OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT AND HAVE FUN DOING IT!

WHEN: Saturday, September 20, 2008
TIME: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
WHERE: Pier 17 Stage Fulton & South Street
South Street Seaport, Manhattan

Founder Matthew Modine, and celebrity supporters, invite New Yorkers young and old, to leave their gas-powered motor vehicles home and hop on a bike or lace up your sneakers or strap on some skates and head to the South Street Seaport for an afternoon of free entertainment and live music.

The BFAD event includes special guest speakers, an Eco-Market and exciting prize drawings and gifts. Registration is not required, and the event is free and open to the public – just get to the Seaport without using gas!

The BFAD mission is to inspire and inform individuals about simple everyday actions that, done collectively, can make a real difference in the fight against global warming. There are hundreds of things each of us can do, every day, to reduce our carbon footprint. Riding a bicycle has an immediate positive impact on the environment.

BFAD is a charitable foundation committed to the preservation of our environment.

http://www.bicycleforaday.org/

SEE YOU THERE!!
Anna
Waterkeeper Alliance

Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law

2008-09-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Thursday, 11 September 2008

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

The not-guilty verdict, delivered after two days and greeted with cheers in the courtroom, raises the stakes for the most pressing issue on Britain's green agenda and could encourage further direct action.

Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival Comes to Maine

2008-09-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, October 4^th, 5-9 p.m., Friends of Casco Bay will host the Patagonia Presents the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour at the Abromson Community Education Center on the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus. This nationally-touring festival features films that range from humorous animated shorts to inspiring full-length documentaries – all of which seek to enhance environmental awareness.

A special addition to the film festival is the Maine premiere of Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk featuring Waterkeeper Alliance Board Chair Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author/ explorer Wade Davis, and their daughters, on an exhilarating rafting adventure down the Colorado River to retrace the route of the 1869 expedition led by John Wesley Powell. This documentary was produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films, which has produced and distributed more than two dozen IMAX films since 1983, including To Fly!, seen at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. The studio has adapted this 2008 IMAX production to DVD especially for Friends of Casco Bay’s October 4^th showing. The film’s songs and musical score were composed and performed by the Grammy-winning Dave Matthews Band.

Introducing the film will be actress Gloria Reuben, best known for her recurring role in NBC’s hit series, ER, from 1994 to 2000, as physician assistant Jeanie Boulet, a character bravely battling HIV/AIDS. Gloria is a Trustee of Waterkeeper Alliance, the organization co-founded by environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and seven Waterkeepers, including Casco Bay’s own Baykeeper, Joe Payne. Gloria is currently appearing in a new TV drama on TNT, Raising the Bar, co-starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue) and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle). Gloria is coming expressly to be part of this fundraiser for Friends of Casco Bay. She says, “I've always wanted to visit Maine. What a treat it will be able to experience that beautiful part of the country, along with supporting Joe Payne, the Casco Baykeeper, and Waterkeeper Alliance."

Films will be shown from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and from 7:30 to 9, with an intermission catered by Whole Foods Market. A dessert reception follows. Tickets for the film festival are on sale now at Whole Foods Market, Cycle Mania, Bull Moose Music, and Patagonia Outlet. They can also be purchased online through www.cascobay.org. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door, and include admission to all 8 films as well as the dinner and dessert receptions.

Save The Waves Coalition, Waterkeeper Alliance and FIMA launch Maule Coastkeeper in Chile

2008-09-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

August 21, 2008 - Save The Waves Coalition is proud to announce it is a founding member of Maule Coastkeeper, a new strategic partnership with Waterkeeper Alliance and Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) to open Chile’s first Waterkeeper Alliance program.

“This is an exciting time and a turning point in the protection of Chile’s coastal environment,” stated Josh Berry, Chile program director for Save The Waves. “Never before has an organization of this type established a permanent presence in coastal Chile with such close community participation.” The program will be based in the coastal town of Curanipe in Chile’s 7th Region and will include an outreach office, community education center and a boat to patrol the waters of the region. A full-time Chilean advocate will act as the Maule Coastkeeper to patrol, monitor and protect the area’s marine waters in close cooperation with local fishermen, businesses and scientists.

The Maule Coastkeeper will be responsible for protecting and monitoring the environmental health of the coastal waters and coastline of Chile’s 7th and 8th regions. Some of the critical issues to be tackled by the new program include over-fishing, forestry industry pollution, raw sewage, pesticides runoff, over-development from urbanization and encroaching roads in sensitive coastal areas. The Maule Coastkeeper program will launch in early 2009 in Curanipe and will cover a geographic region of approximately 100 km of coastline. In the near future the organization anticipates growth into other coastal and freshwater regions of Chile.

Francisco Ferrada, executive director of FIMA, commented: “For FIMA this brings great satisfaction and a tremendously rewarding challenge to be part of the Waterkeeper Alliance. It allows us to develop new, meaningful projects in Chile to truly protect water resources here.”

“This is a huge victory for Save The Waves’ program in Chile, and for the Chilean coastal environmental movement in general,” said Save The Waves executive director, Dean LaTourrette. “Waterkeeper is the perfect partner for Save The Waves in Chile and beyond, to help protect coastal water quality in and around the surf zone.”
____________________________________________________________

About Save The Waves Coalition
Save the Waves is an environmental coalition dedicated to preserving the world's surf spots and their surrounding environments. The organization’s goal is to preserve and protect surfing locations around the planet and to educate the public about their value. Save the Waves works in partnership with local communities, foreign and national governments, as well as other conservation groups to prevent coastal development from entering the surf zone. Save the Waves is a 501(c)3 non-profit. http://www.savethewaves.org

About FIMA
Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) is the first and most important environmental law firm in Chile working to preserve the country’s natural resources by reducing and eliminating environmental degradation. FIMA represents and assists the citizens of Chile in order to prevent and resolve environmental problems, and simultaneously promote sustainable development and conservation. http://www.fima.cl

Mega Developers Retreat

2008-09-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

After two historic and democratic processes of public participation, two mega-development projects (Hotel & Gulf Course La Lobera and Mega-Marina Hussongs Marina International) that would have destroyed valuable ecosystems and important recreation & archeological centers for the local community in Ensenada, Baja California were canceled.

In April 2008, the first project (Marina Porto Hussong) was presented for its environmental impact evaluation in the local office of the Environmental Ministry (SEMARNAT). Immediately after learning of it, Defensa Ambiental Del Noroeste (Northeastern Environmental Defense, DAN) summoned the community in order to work hand-in-hand and review, discuss and technically analyze the project. With great interest, different members of the community attended the call and without delay started collaborating with DAN. Thanks to the support of our donors, DAN was able to provide legal advice on the process and hire different specialists to review the Environmental Impact Assessment presented by the proponents.

With the results of the technical/legal analysis and for the first time in the region, more than 100 (one hundred) requests for a Public Consultation and Public Hearing were submitted. The authority was then compelled to carry out such Public Hearing which had great participation of the community, including individuals, academic institutions and NGO's. After the Public Hearing, the local representation of SEMARNT again received more than 100 petitions from the community, this time claiming SEMARNAT to deny the authorization for the project.

Then, on June 2008, Hotel & Gulf Course La Lobera project was presented for evaluation in the local office of SEMARNAT. This project represented the construction of a Marina and more than 200 hotel rooms and a103 acres (42 hectares) Gulf Course over valuable archeological sites and one of the last remaining communities of coastal sage scrub in the Baja California Peninsula.

After learning from the process followed in the Marina Porto Hussongs Project, members of the community immediately approached DAN with the objective of replicating the methods with this new development project.

Again, DAN together with members of the local community worked hand-in-hand to review, discuss and technically analyze the project. After requesting a Public Hearing, DAN and members of the community filed petitions, comments and suggestions to SEMARNAT.

Today, August 21^st , 2008 the resolution for both projects was published in the Federal Environmental Gazette No. DGIRA/36/08 (Official Weekly Publication of SEMARNAT's resolutions). Both projects appear as CANCELED.

The developer of the Marina, Hotel & Gulf Course La Lobera project decided to pull out the project from the environmental impact evaluation which consequence is the immediate cancellation. The Marina Porto Hussongs project was denied the authorization.

These outcomes, no doubt, were possible thanks to the active and democratic participation of the local community. However, it is important to insist the fact that it was thanks to the support of our donors and friends that DAN was able to get the community together, advice on the legal procedures and technically review the Environmental Impact Statements which were the basis of all the solicitations.

These two outcomes have set important community-participation precedents in the region. Now, the community knows that, upon a collaborative participation and through the legal framework it is possible to influence the decision making process in order to guarantee the public health and the protection of the ecosystems which are the basis for a good quality of life.

Source:
FERNANDO OCHOA

Executive Director
Defensa Ambiental del Noroeste (DAN)
Environmental Law -Defense Center

Energy Rates Reflect Global Patterns

2008-08-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

ConEd's rate for electricity just jumped up 30% to 16.4 cents kWh because of increases in fossil fuel prices, while green energy supplies (such as ConEd Solutions) just dropped down to 16.4 cents kWh. So if you were ever thinking about switching, but concerned about the increased costs, the world is now in balance.

More About Green Power

Contact your local supplier and find out about rate options and pricing. Making a change could leave you with some spare change!

Related Stories

Australian "Hot Rocks" Offer 26,000 Yrs of Power

Barely one percent of Australia's untapped geothermal energy could produce 26,000 years worth of clean electricity, scientists said, as the government announced a a A$50 million (US$43 million) project to help develop the technology.

Japan to launch carbon footprint labelling scheme

Japan is to carry carbon footprint labels on food packaging and other products in an ambitious scheme to persuade companies and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Beer on tap in Japan ... Sapporo, a brewer, has said it will label cans of beer with an individual carbon footprint. Photograph: Jonathan Watts

The Waterkeepers Film

2008-08-04T09:25:00.001-07:00

2008-07-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

THE GRAND CANYON

By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
From Waterkeeper magazine, spring 2008: Dams Kill Rivers.

In 1967 my father took me and eight of my brothers and sisters on a Colorado River white water trip through the Grand Canyon. Just above our put-in, Glen Canyon Dam had been completed three years before and Lake Powell was still filling. The new dam complemented the Hoover Dam nearly 300 miles downstream at the other end of the Grand Canyon. Together, they promised to irrigate a thirsty west, generate hydropower and create great lakes with recreational opportunities for millions. But critics thought Glen Canyon Dam a wasteful and reckless boondoggle to corporate agriculture and greedy developers. Environmentalists said the dam would destroy the Grand Canyon National Park’s unique ecology and that the lakes would lose horrendous amounts of water to evaporation and seepage and would soon fill with sediment.
...
The Colorado River has nothing more to give. But while scientists continue to sound the warning, the river managers insist on business as usual, encouraging wasteful agricultural uses and the proliferation of urban sprawl and dramatic increases in consumption. They have engineered a system geared to reward the powerful, destroy the river and impoverish the rest of us.
...
Read More

Your elected officials need to hear from you. Give them a call, write them a letter or email them, let them know that you care about clean water and that you expect them to stand up for the Clean Water Act.

Click here to find out how to contact your members of Congress.

2008-07-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone has the right to clean water. Waterkeeper Alliance unites fishermen, boaters, swimmers, paddlers, naturalists, scientists and other water enthusiasts to the ideal of preserving our natural resources. Join us as an E-Advocate for timely action alerts on our campaigns and to make your voice heard for clean water.

Bicycle For A Day (BFAD)

2008-07-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

“The environmental situation is a great opportunity for us all to work together to find solutions. Bicycle for a Day is just that—citizens of the world joining together globally and acting locally.”

-Matthew Modine, Founder BFAD

This is not a bicycle race! BFAD is a day to demonstrate how doing ONE thing can help improve the environment.

The official BFAD launch will take place at NYC's historic South Street Seaport. Here you'll find an amazing gathering of people! You'll be able to collect information on how you can DO ONE thing everyday which will improve our environment. In addtion, there will be lots of cool stuff from our supporting sponsors for you to take home! You can also purchase the Official BFAD Dog Tag to demonstrate your support and solidarity for our charitable partners: WATERKEEPER, AMERICAN FORESTS, and TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES.