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Uranium Mining in Virginia: What finally got a national policy wonk to look and then act in her own backyard.
Today we welcome Guest Blogger Lisa Ragain, who runs Aqua Vitae, a water consulting organization. Lisa's message is quite timely, given that the Virginia Senate Agriculture Committee will consider this issue tomorrow, January 31. It’s confession time. I have spent most of my adult life working on drinking water policy. From the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to the EPA Office of Water, I’m in the loop. I am conversant on drought in Texas, legislative hearings in New Jersey and chemical contamination in Illinois. But prior to last year, I could not tell you what was going on with
Let Them Vote!
By Bob Wendelgass, President & CEO You know what I’m sick of? Seeing important bills that would protect our water, fight climate change, and help build a clean energy economy never get a vote in the Senate. I think it’s time to do something about it so our Senators can start representing you and me and voting on the bills we care about. But we need your help today! We need to reform the filibuster and we have one chance to do it right now – so email (and call) your Senators today! Tell them to support Senate Resolution 4 (SR 4), which makes simple and common sense changes to the filibuster to
Michigan’s Outdated and Dangerous Combined Sewer Systems
Many of Michigan’s urban and suburban areas expanded rapidly between the 1920s and the 1950s — an era with different priorities for water management. Many of Michigan’s water systems were originally built as combined systems, meaning the pipes carried both stormwater and wastewater. These systems simply discharged all water directly into local lakes, rivers, and streams, without treatment. Wastewater treatment centers were built later, and the combined sewer pipes were redirected there for the water to be processed before being released back into the water table. Starting in the mid-1950s
Protecting Michigan’s Waters: Infrastructure for the Future
Michigan is the Great Lakes state. As such, Michigan residents are acutely aware of our duty to protect the Great Lakes and our water resources for future generations. There are currently many threats to our water here in Michigan. Most of these threats have been looming for years, but action on them has been pushed off, as our legislature procrastinates and ignores the problems instead of taking the hard steps that action requires. The Flint water crisis brought the dangers of lead infrastructure and poor oversight from the state to the surface and a city was poisoned as a result. Every year
Michigan’s Aging Septic Systems
E. coli is a major bacterial pollutant in Michigan’s water. While E. coli is commonly talked about in reference to combined sewer overflows and large-scale agricultural operations, there is another major source of E. coli in our water that every state in the country other than Michigan has worked to eliminate — leaking and failing septic systems. Michigan is currently the only state that does not require regular inspections of septic systems, and the problem is only getting worse with time. Septic systems are generally found in rural areas where municipal sewer systems don’t exist, or in older
