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Burning Trash is Not Clean Energy!
People all across Maryland - especially in Baltimore, Frederick, and Montgomery County where communities have fought or are fighting against trash incinerators in their neighborhoods - have been working to make sure that any increase in the renewable portfolio standard not increase subsidies for trash incineration. Today, on the last day of the legislative session, the current version of the Clean Energy Jobs Act maintains burning trash as a tier 1 renewable energy source, keeping it eligible for the maximum amount of subsidy available.
Trash incineration is highly polluting, a problem for the
Good News out of Annapolis
This week has been a big week for many Clean Water priorities.
We will start with the disappointing news. On Monday, HB275/SB270 to ban chlorpyrifos failed to move forward in the Senate. The House of Delegates passed the bill, but the Senate would not move it out of committee. Read the coalition's statement here. Clean Water and the coalition will be back next year to ban this powerful and dangerous pesticide. Listen to The Environment in Focus by Tom Pelton for a good synopsis of the bill and the dynamics at play.
But many good things happened this week!
The Keep Antibiotics Effective Act
April showers bring ... sewage back-ups
April showers don't only bring May flowers: in a city with sewage infrastructure in desparate need of expansion and repair, they also bring sewage into local streams, city streets, and even people's homes.
Two years ago, Baltimore City signed a new Consent Decree, the agreement among the city and state and federal regulators that governs how the city must address sewage overflows. This modified consent decree, written after the city did not meet the original 2016 deadline for repairs to be completed, commits the city to making major infrastructure repairs to the Back River Wastewater Treatment
“No Bomb Trains in Baltimore” Coalition Statement on Falls Road Train Derailment
On Friday afternoon, a freight train derailed over the 1900 block of Falls Road. Media outlets are reporting that at least five train cars fell at least two stories onto the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, Falls Road, and surrounding green space. Fortunately, no leaks, spills, or injuries have been reported. But this is only a matter of luck, as trains carrying hazardous materials travel through Baltimore routinely.
In April 2018, Baltimore City passed the Crude Oil Terminal Prohibition, banning the construction of new and the expansion of existing crude oil terminals in Baltimore. This was the
Septic Legislation in 2019
Septic systems are a decentralized way to treat human waste. In most cases, an individual home has its own septic system and drain field.
Waste from a home is sent to a box, which holds it for awhile, then it slowly trickles out into the yard in a drain field, where the microbes in the soil further break down the waste. In a conventional system, a functioning septic system does a good job at breaking down bacterial and viral harms from the waste, but it does not address nitrogen pollution. In an advanced treatment unit (or Best Available Technology aka BAT), there is an additional step of