Passage of permanent reauthorization in March 2019 was a huge victory for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), for stakeholders around the country, and for bipartisan cooperation in Congress. Investments in our public lands and recreation opportunities support local economies and fuel a massive, homegrown, $887 billion outdoor industry.
On December 2nd, the Howard County Council sent pro-tree legislation to County Executive Ball’s desk, and he signed all three bills. This is so incredibly exciting, especially after we and other environmentalists have worked for years to update Maryland’s 1991 Forest Conservation Act to address our continually shrinking forests.
Michigan has been a leader in addressing PFAS. In the summer of 2019 the Whitmer Administration began to create Michigan’s first-ever enforceable drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals. The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has finalized the draft MCL (maximum contaminant level) and opened it up for public comments. Now it’s your turn to get involved.
Our state is defined by water, and in Michigan our water belongs to the people. But we don’t always act like water is our most importance resource.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Trump is proposing to weaken water pollution standards for the power plant industry (known as the Steam Electric Effluent Limitations and Guidelines (ELG) rule). In 2015 EPA issued the first ever national pollution standards to limit the amount of arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium and other harmful chemicals that power plants can dump into our water. These standards had not been updated since 1982 and led to the contamination of 23,000 miles of rivers and streams across the country, including drinking water sources.
Massachusetts is at a crossroads: We bury, burn, or export 5.6 million tons of trash each year which threatens the health of our communities, destroys valuable resources and wastes a lot of taxpayer money.
Right now, the Frederick County Council is considering Bill 19-17 (PDF) to create an independent Sustainable Monocacy Commission to "recommend policies that improve water quality, maintain and restore the ecological health and productivity of the Monocacy River and its tributaries, and conserve and protect wildlife habitat, the natural, cultural, and scenic character of the Monocacy River and its tributaries flowing in and through Frederick County." This is a great step f
Will you send an email to all fourteen companies that earned F grades? These companies, including Ulta, Starbucks, and TJ Maxx/Marshalls need to hear from you.
CB61-2019 amends the waiver process for many environmental provisions, including wetlands and forests, and addresses sidewalk waivers! A frequent complaint we hear from residents and advocates is that waivers are not transparent, are granted too frequently, and are undermining the effectiveness of environmental protections. CB61-2019 addresses this in two different ways. First, it brings the standard for the county up to the state standard of "unreasonable hardship," which cannot be economic.