Spring Leadership Conference 2013

Bob Wendelgass opening the Spring Leadership Conference

January 31, 2013 was the vote that never happened. Clean Water Action and allies won a critical battle in the fight to keep Virginia’s current uranium mining ban in place. This was the date when the State Senate’s environmental committee was scheduled to vote on Senate Bill 1353, a bill to regulate uranium mining at the Coles Hill site in Pittsylvania County. If passed, the bill would have effectively ended the state’s thirty-one year ban on uranium mining, beginning what could have been a long, ferocious fight on the issue.

Instead, bill sponsor Sen. John C. Watkins withdrew his bill, presumably knowing from his count of likely votes that the measure was doomed to fail.

chesapeake currents

Last year’s landmark Watershed Protection and Restoration Act victory has energized local governments in Baltimore and Maryland’s largest counties to develop new funding for reducing pollution from streets and parking lots. Local jurisdictions will enact stormwater utility fees, ending subsidies to developers who have long avoided accountability for pollution flowing from paved areas. These local measures will generate millions of dollars to help residents and businesses to improve water management. This will reduce torrential and devastating flows and flooding downstream and capture rain water that can be used for many purposes, including cultivation of green landscapes. Read More

Virginia has been protected from uranium mining for the past 30 years. However, the Virginia Senate is considering overturning the ban on dangerous uranium mining. We need to tell them the health of our water and our communities is at stake. We need to tell them to keep the moratorium on mining in place!

Please take one minute RIGHT NOW to call your state Senator and urge them to protect Virginia's 30-year ban on uranium mining by opposing Senate Bill 1353. Find your state Senator's contact information here and call him or her right away. Find out who your Senator is, or how to contact them, here. You can also send a message by clicking here.

Tim Kaine for US Senate

Clean Water Action has endorsed Tim Kaine of Virginia for the United States Senate. It is the second Clean Water Action endorsement for Kaine. The first was in 2005 when he was the clear environmental choice for Governor. As Governor, Tim Kaine did not disappoint. His four years in office were a time of progress for the protection and restoration of Virginia’s water.

Clean Water Action has been knocking on doors throughout Northern Virginia. Since June, the goal has been to recruit new members and renew longtime supporters, and then to make sure Clean Water Action members are registered to vote.

All members are urged to turn out and vote for a slate of high priority candidates this November 6. Each is in races with very high environmental stakes for Virginia and for the nation. These include President Barack Obama, Tim Kaine for the U.S. Senate, and Gerry Connolly for the U.S. House (District 11). Clean Water Action’s endorsements followed a rigorous process involving tough looks at the candidates’ records and positions, responses to questionnaires, and in some cases interviews.