Massachusetts Regulators: Waste Not, Want Not

What do recent natural gas explosions in Fitchburg, Springfield, Winthrop and Fall River have to do with the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposal to allow more trash burners in the Bay State? Gas leaks and garbage incinerators both raise public health and safety concerns. But there’s a subtler link between them. Both reflect serious inconsistencies on the part of the state:

New England likes to pride itself on innovation, on sparking new ideas and inventions.

Basketball? Invented in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. The first American subway system hit the rails in Boston, 1898. First printed newspaper? Hartford Courant, published in 1764. First frisbee? Thrown on New Haven Green, 1920. The first circus launched in Newport, Rhode Island in 1774.

Clean Water Action’s New England team is promoting a suite of innovative measures to protect health, stimulate the green economy and advance environmental justice. Together with Clean Water Action members, community partners and allies, we’re making a big push to make progress throughout the region in 2013. This overview covers the latest from your state. Please join Clean Water Action and speak out in support of clean air, clean water and healthier communities.

Connecticut

Campaign drives are under way to support clean energy and chemical safety advances.

Toxics: Clean Water Action supports bills to protect children’s health by eliminating toxic chemicals from consumer goods in daily use.

Massachusetts can protect the health of its residents, care for its environment and invest in a 21st century infrastructure. Please join Clean Water Action to help pass legislation which stewards our transition to clean energy, grows the green economy, cuts waste and moves us away from toxic chemicals. Ask your legislators to help grow healthy, vibrant communities by supporting these bills. 

Fossil fuels have no dominion over us: it's time for community power. Clean Water Action works to protect public health, the environment, and local economies, by shifting Massachusetts away from the burning of coal and aiding communities in the transition.

An environmental policy veteran who got her start in the public health offices of Stoughton and Canton is on her way to taking the nation’s top environmental post.
 
Regina McCarthy, 58, was nominated by President Barack Obama on Monday to head the Environmental Protection Agency, where she has served as an assistant administrator and head of the Office of Air and Radiation since 2009. She is expected to face a tough confirmation in Congress, even though she made it through a confirmation vote for her current position four years ago.
 

HULL — As crews work to piece together a system for treating sewage at Hull’s disabled sewer plant, environmental experts are voicing concern about the damage already done by the millions of gallons of untreated waste dumped into the ocean since Thursday.

Phillip Lemnios, Hull’s town manager, said he expects several generators and pumps will arrive Saturday that would allow workers to resume the treatment of waste at the plant, which was knocked off line by a sudden surge of water early Thursday morning. Once the pieces are assembled, probably by late Saturday or Sunday, Lemnios said the town can stop pumping untreated sewage over a seawall and into the ocean.

If one wants an indication where U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy's priorities lie as a public servant, he or she needs only to look at the beginning of her resume.

McCarthy, who heads EPA's Office of Air and Radiation and is widely rumored to be nominated as EPA administrator in the next week, started her career as a public health agent in her hometown of Canton, Mass., working for the local board of health in nearby Stoughton.

"That's what she's about," said Seth Kaplan, vice president for policy and climate advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation, who worked with McCarthy in Massachusetts on energy and air issues. "And let me tell you, that person is still there."

Children’s nap mats from California, New York, Washington, Alaska, Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut contain harmful flame retardant chemicals, according to independent testing commissioned by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) and co-released today by the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow (AHT).

The flame retardant chemicals found in the nap mats, which are used in daycares nationwide, have been linked to cancer, genetic damage, impacts on fertility and reproductive health, allergies, hormone disruption, and other serious health problems. The nap mats were purchased at major retailers including Babies R Us, Target, and national online daycare supply companies. The findings were released today in the CEH report, Naptime Nightmares? Toxic Flame Retardants in Child Care Nap Mats.

Christina Michaud of Boston, mother of Marcus, age 4 and Samantha, 14 months.  “How are parents supposed to do our primary job of keeping our children safe from harm?” she asked.  “It’s horrible that companies think that it’s okay to put toxic chemicals in children’s products and that the government isn’t doing anything about it.”

Some elected officials intend to do something about it including Senator Ken Donnelly (D-Arlington) who, along with Representative Jay Kaufman (D-Lexington), has filed An Act for Healthy Families and Businesses in the Massachusetts Legislature.  The bill would create a program to systematically replace toxic chemicals with safer alternatives in consumer products wherever that’s feasible.