In the weeks and months leading up to Election Day, Clean Water Action didn’t just work to turn out as many votes as possible for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, along with other clean water leaders from mayors’ offices to state houses to Congress. We were also planning for what would happen on Election Day and once the polls closed. There was a genuine concern that we might face a constitutional crisis, that millions of voters would be wrongly disenfranchised, that our elections systems could have broken down.

Normally my Thanksgiving message is pretty easy -- I talk about the things that Clean Water has to be thankful for and then profusely thank our members for the support throughout the year. And we do have plenty to be thankful for and I will thank you, but I also want to acknowledge that 2020 has been a long, tough year.

On November 24th, Clean Water Action joined a new lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest rollback of vital safeguards to protect communities from coal ash. Coal ash is the toxic waste left over from burning coal for electricity. More than 100 million tons is generated annually, making it one of the largest industrial waste streams in the United States. Coal ash is packed with some of the deadliest substances known to humans, including harmful carcinogens like arsenic, cadmium, and chromium, and neurotoxins such as lead, lithium, and mercury.