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Clean Water Accomplishments in Maryland
Maryland’s legislative session ended early for the first time since the Civil War this year, because of COVID-19. This meant that the only piece of legislation we were working on that passed was the ban on chlorpyrifos. Governor Hogan vetoed the chlorpyrifos ban, opting for regulations instead. Regulations can be undone with the stroke of a single pen, which is why Clean Water likes strong legislative language!
Chlorpyrifos is a super toxic pesticide that is dangerous not only to pollinators, but also to people and aquatic life. The US EPA under the Obama administration could not find a safe
Composting on Farms in Montgomery County: Testimony on ZTA 20-04
On December 1, the Montgomery County Council held a hearing on Zoning Text Amendment 20-04, a bill to increase the amount of organic waste that farms can bring in from off-site for composting or mulching. While this is a small piece of the zero waste puzzle, measures like this across Maryland will help keep organic waste out of landfills and incinerators, sequester carbon and build healthy soils, and even help support Maryland's agricultural economy. Here is our testimony in support of ZTA 20-04:
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December 1, 2020
Dear Montgomery County Council,
On behalf of Clean Water Action’s
Touring the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant
On October 15th, I visited the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant on a tour with Baltimore Heritage. Though the plant was originally constructed in 1940, the iteration that exists today was finished in 1985 and treats wastewater: 90% from households, and 10% from industrial sources. This wastewater comes from South and West Baltimore city, along with Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties. The plant is 68 acres and has the capacity to process 63 million gallons of water a day and has a four stage treatment process, from preliminary, to primary, secondary, and tertiary. How does the
A Confusing Week for Baltimore's Plastic Bag Ban
On Monday October 7 at 1:00 pm, I attended the Baltimore City Council Judiciary Committee's work session on the Plastic Bag Reduction Bill ( #19-0401). It had to do with redefinition of a banned "plastic checkout bag" from a maximum thickness of 4 mils (thousandths of an inch) to a mazimum thickness of 2.25 mils. This would mean that distribution of plastic bags below 2.25 mils would be disallowed, and distribution of those between 2.25 and 4 mils to customers would be standard. In essence, a slightly thicker bag would be standard to encourage a false spirit of reusability. According to Cailey
MDE listens to stories about "A Geyser of Human Waste"
On September 30, 2019, the Maryland Department of Environment held a meeting on the growing concerns surrounding the effectiveness of the “Baltimore City Building Backup Expedited Reimbursement Pilot Program”. Albeit the name of the program is long, the issues that this program remedies are concise. In general, the program is meant to compensate for the cost of the flooding of sewage within the basements of Baltimore City residents. Due to increased rainfall experienced by the Baltimore community, the aging infrastructure of the sewage pipes become backed up, leading to sewage becoming