2015 Environmental Election Endorsements FALL 2015 | CHESAPEAKE the clean water action newsletter chesapeake currents virginia 1120 N. Charles Street, Suite 415, Baltimore, MD 21201 | 410.235.8808 | CleanWaterAction.org Clean Water Action members know how important water is to our economy, health and quality of life in the Commonwealth. This election is critical. Be a Clean Water Voter on November 3. Find your polling location here. Check out the below candidates. Then go vote! You’re not just deciding who your next State Senator and Delegate will be. On Election Day, you will make important decisions about Virginia’s future and the progress cleaning up our rivers, streams and the Chesapeake Bay. Voters like you will make the difference in all those races. Make your voice heard on Tuesday, November 3 — and make sure your friends and family join you — we need to turn out as many clean water voters as possible. Kathleen Murphy Since winning the January 2015 special election, 34th District Del. Murphy has been a strong voice in the General Assembly on environmental issues, as protecting the Chesapeake Bay, defending the existing ban on uranium mining, and promoting green technology development. During the 2015 session, Delegate Murphy got it right every time — voting for clean energy, supporting sensible transportation options, and securing vital funding for the Chesapeake Bay. Kathleen Murphy supported the fight to finalize a strong Clean Water Rule, to protect streams and drinking water sources for2.36 million Virginians. Learn more about Kathleen. Jennifer Wexton State Sen. Wexton has focused on long-term solutions for energy use, infrastructure and lands use. She has promoted greater use of renewable energy by encouraging homeowners and businesses to install solar panels. During the 2015 General Assembly session, Sen. Wexton got the conservation vote right every time, and supported efforts to finalize the Clean Water Rule. She will continue to be a strong environmental ally in the State Senate. Learn more about Jennifer. INCUMBENTS
Transcript
2015 Environmental Election Endorsements
FALL 2015 | CHESAPEAKE the clean water action newsletter
chesapeakecurrentsvirginia
1120 N. Charles Street, Suite 415, Baltimore, MD 21201 | 410.235.8808 | CleanWaterAction.org
Clean Water Action members know how important water is to our economy, health and quality of life in the Commonwealth. This election is critical. Be a Clean Water Voter on November 3. Find your polling location here. Check out the below candidates. Then go vote!
You’re not just deciding who your next State Senator and Delegate will be. On Election Day, you will make important decisions about Virginia’s future and the progress cleaning up our rivers, streams and the Chesapeake Bay. Voters like you will make the difference in all those races. Make your voice heard on Tuesday, November 3 — and make sure your friends and family join you — we need to turn out as many clean water voters as possible.
Kathleen MurphySince winning the January 2015 special election, 34th District Del. Murphy has been a strong voice in the General Assembly on environmental issues, as protecting the Chesapeake Bay, defending the existing ban on uranium mining, and promoting green technology development.
During the 2015 session, Delegate Murphy got it right every time — voting for clean energy, supporting sensible transportation options, and securing vital funding for the Chesapeake Bay. Kathleen Murphy supported the fight to finalize a strong Clean Water Rule, to protect streams and drinking water sources for2.36 million Virginians.
Learn more about Kathleen.
Jennifer WextonState Sen. Wexton has focused on long-term solutions for energy use, infrastructure and lands use. She has promoted greater use of renewable energy by encouraging homeowners and businesses to install solar panels.
During the 2015 General Assembly session, Sen. Wexton got the conservation vote right every time, and supported efforts to finalize the Clean Water Rule. She will continue to be a strong environmental ally in the State Senate.
Jeremy McPikeJeremy McPike is running for State Senate in the 29th District. As a Dale City volunteer fire fighter, Jeremy led design and construction of Fire Station 10, which won Washington Business Journal’s 2010 Green Business Design Award. It was also the nation’s first volunteer fire station to earn the U.S. Green Building and Council’s LEED Gold rating.
Jeremy is a LEED Accredited Professional and currently serves as the Director of General Services for the City of Alexandria. In this role, he established SNAP/EBT at local Farmers’ Markets so healthy foods can reach the most vulnerable people, and helped develop sustainable green building policies for the City of Alexandria.
Learn more about Jeremy.
Angela LynnAngela Lynn is running for Delegate in the 25th district. She serves on the Albemarle County Department of Social Service Advisory Board and the Public Recreational Facilities Authority. After Hurricane Katrina, Angela worked for FEMA documenting mitigation sources to build a better structure for wildlife and natural resource preservation and educated homeowners and businesses about toxic chemical storage. Angela’s top environmental priorities are to oppose Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, offshore drilling on Virginia’s coasts, and hydraulic fracturing.
Learn more about Angela.
OPEN SEAT
CHALLENGER
Defending the Clean Water Rule
Contact Clean Water Action’s Virginia Program Organizer, Michael Bochynski, for the latest on the Clean Water Rule or to get involved, [email protected], 202-895-0420 X106.
The finalized Clean Water Rule returns Clean Water Act safeguards to most streams and wetlands and protects the drinking water for more than 117 million Ameri-cans, including 2.36 million Virginia residents. Clean Water Action has been fighting to restore these protec-tions for nearly 13 years, and winning this restoration of the Clean Water Act was a historic victory.
Clean Water Action’s Virginia members were a key part of this success — submitting 9,931 public com-ments, including handwritten letters, in support of the rule. Clean Water Action mobilized support from Vir-ginia municipalities, elected officials and non-govern-mental organizations (NGOs). As a result, Clean Water Action secured 3 resolutions/proclamations from the Cities of Alexandria and Charlottesville and the Town
of Herndon and letters from 26 federal, state, and local officials and NGOs supporting the Clean Water Rule.
However, opponents of clean water are mobilizing in Washington — introducing amendments, bills, and riders that would undo environmental protections that Clean Water Action fought so hard to achieve. Votes by Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine could be critically important, and both face intense polluter pressure to support bad water amendments, bills, and riders. Clean Water Action will continue encouraging elected officials to weigh in on the clean water side. Virginians can help by communicating support for clean water and urging Senators Warner and Kaine to stand up as leaders for Virginia’s rivers, lakes, and bays.
Virginia Uranium, Inc. is proposing a complete uranium mining, milling, and storage facility at the Coles Hill site, in Pittsylvania County near Danville and Chatham. This area is in the Roanoke River watershed, where streams flow into Lake Gaston, the primary drinking water source for Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Norfolk Community ImpactsUranium is usually mined in arid climates. But Norfolk is not arid, greatly increasing the water contamination potential. The site is near Lake Gaston, which distributes water to more than 850,000 people in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Any accidents, even minor ones, could send radioactive and toxic chemicals into drinking water sources. Contamination problems would likely not be detected until after people are exposed.
While the uranium industry claims that economic benefits would outweigh the potential risks, studies have proven otherwise. “The adverse economic impact under the worst case scenario is nearly twice as great as the corresponding positive economic impact over the long term,” according to a Chmura Economics and Analytics Report on the issue. “Under one scenario, the Coles Hill site unambiguously has a negative net economic impact no matter how long the site operates before environmental contamination reached the levels assumed in this scenario.”
Clean Water Action and allies helped defeat a long-term (5–11 years) contract with Covanta to incinerate more than half of the District’s waste. Covanta’s current con-tract expires at the end of this year and required approval from the Council of the District of Columbia.
Clean Water Action successfully halted a longer term contract and persuaded the Department of Public Works instead to seek short contracts (one year), so that the District can find other alternatives to work toward zero waste.
The incinerator itself is located in Lorton, Virginia, just 20 miles outside of D.C. Waste incinerators release more emissions than coal power plants, and the Lorton incinerator is second to Dulles Airport in emissions of
nitrogen oxides — pollutants that intensify asthma. As Energy Justice points out, “the Lorton Valley community lives adjacent to the giant incinerator and two large landfills… and nearby a third landfill and a sewage sludge incinerator.”
The EPA has identified Lorton as one of the nation’s most diverse communities of color, and its residents continue to be unlawfully burdened by cumulative impacts from multiple polluting facilities. To stop these injustices and commit to zero waste goals, the District should reconsider their contract with Covanta and seek waste reduction through robust recycling programs including construction and e-waste material, composting and renewable energy.
In June, Clean Water Action led Capitol Heights volunteers in completing the construction and native plantings for a 950 square foot rain garden in the town’s Municipal Center. The garden will help capture and treat 5,700 square feet of polluted runoff from nearby impervious surfaces. Learn how to install green infrastructure projects on your property, http://cleanwateraction.org/programinitiative/stormwater or Prince George’s County Rain Check Rebate Program, http://bit.ly/1V0T18Q.
Proposed Uranium Mine Threatens Norfolk Drinking Water
D.C. Incinerator Contract Delayed
Capitol Heights Rain Garden
FACT: Studies show that it takes 1,000 pounds of ore to produce 1 pound of uranium. If the Coles Hill site is approved, it could generate 50 million tons of mining waste. These wastes could remain 85% radioactive for 300,000 years.
In Maryland, oil trains are a danger to communities near rail lines, particularly to Baltimore since oil is exported through the city. The Bakken crude oil that the oil industry moves by train contains higher concentrations of flammable methane and toxic fracking chemicals, making it more toxic and explosive than conventional oil.
On August 17, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge ruled that information reported by railroad companies to the Maryland Department of Environment on the volume and frequency of oil train deployment is public information.
Less than a month later, on September 9, the state released documents that reported that CSX carried up to one million gallons of crude oil per week through Baltimore City and the entire state, up until the last quarter of 2014.
That is the equivalent of five 35-car trains running through communities each week. 165,000 Baltimore residents live within one mile of the tracks — the “blast zone” or evacuation zone recommended by safety officials in the case of derailment and fire. This information will help Clean Water Action and community leaders press
their case with the Baltimore City Council. In July, Clean Water Action helped organize a rally
around the City Council’s public hearing on citizen concerns about crude oil shipments. Advocates rallied at City Hall, carrying signs and posters with dates of past incidents including the derailment and explosion in Quebec in 2013 that killed 47 people and one in Lynchburg, Virginia, that spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the James River. However, the City has yet to do anything that would halt new permits for companies wishing to ship through the city.
Clean Water Action will continue to pressure Baltimore City Council to act while also reintroducing state legislation in the 2016 General Assembly session.
Although Maryland legislators failed to pass the Pollina-tor Protection Act of 2015 this past legislative session, Clean Water Action continues to work with legislators for strong protections for bees and other pollinators.
Chairman of the House Environment and Transportation Committee Kumar Barve has identified key legislators to review the science of impacts of neonicotinoids (neonics) on Maryland’s honeybees and other pollinators for the 2016 Maryland General Assembly. Neonics are a class of systemic insecticides scientists say are a driving factor in the decline of bee populations.
Recent studies and reports continue to underscore the seriousness of the decline in bees and other pollinators. A recent USDA report noted that in 2014,
Maryland beekeepers lost 61 percent of their beehives, up from 50 percent in 2012 and the nation’s fifth highest loss. In recent past, many bee die-offs were attributed to cold winter temperatures, coupled with over-exposure to pesticides, and varroa mites. However, beekeepers noted an average of 44 percent loss during the summer — normally a time when bees thrive. Maryland beekeepers simply cannot sustain such losses. In 2016, Clean Water Action will work again for legislation to protect bees and other pollinators from harmful pesticides.
