How communities across Maryland handle their solid waste has enormous impacts on local air quality, municipal budgets, and climate change.
Trenton, NJ: Clean Water Action is making a last-ditch plea for the legislature to pass S2776 / A4330 to ban plastic and paper carryout bags, polystyrene takeout containers, and to offer straws by request before January 14th. NJ’s top 3 elected officials all say they want to ban single use plastic bags but final votes are still needed.
When it rains in Baltimore, residents like Vernadine Kimball fear raw sewage seeping into their homes.
Kimball is one of the thousands of people who reported sewage backups in their homes last year.
“The sewage came up through here in the tub,” Kimball said, pointing to the fixtures in her bathroom. “The smell is so horrible.”
In an economy designed to consume as much as possible as often as possible, it’s no surprise that we churn through products so rapidly that we are facing an escalating planetary waste crisis.
Violations of federal air standards could continue through the weekend
U.S. Steel emissions at Clairton primary cause of severe air pollution event
(Clairton) – Clean Water Action issued a statement this morning alerting residents in the Clairton and surrounding area to unhealthy air quality over the weekend and continuing today. On both December 21 and 22 air monitoring data on the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) website indicated that the Liberty monitor in the Mon Valley recorded violations of the daily fine particle (PM2.5) standard, with levels almost 50% over the health based standard.
Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF) are synthetic PFAS-containing foams designed for flammable liquid fires, also called Class B fires. The PFAS serve as surfactants that spread the foam to cool and suppress the fire. While they are extremely effective, they are also a major source of PFAS pollution in California and around the world.
Proposed Rule Would Allow Coal Utilities to Continue to Use Old, Ineffective Pollution Treatment
It’s disappointing that EPA chose not to require full replacement of lead service lines — the largest source of lead in drinking water — and stopped short of other measures to reduce exposure.
Clean Water Action commended the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board for voting to launch the rulemaking process on Governor Wolf’s concrete action to help address climate change through curbing harmful air pollution from the Commonwealth’s existing oil and gas operations.