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| Streams and wetlands in Massachusetts are at risk of increased pollution, according to a report released today by Environment Massachusetts, Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It. One case study highlighted in this report is a wetland area around Buzzards Bay that is at risk of loosing Clean Water Act protections. The report also provides 30 case studies demonstrating how the federal Clean Water Act is broken and calling on Representative Capuano to fix it. | |
| In 1972, the Clean Water Act was passed in a historic promise to make all of our lakes and rivers safe for fishing and swimming by 1985. Today, 38 years later, our waters still lack the protections they need: nearly half the waters in the U.S. are considered too polluted to be safe. | |
| Just a month after the Patrick Administration’s Department of Environmental Protection rolled back environmental protections when issuing 20-year water withdrawal permits, DEP is sitting down with environmental groups to re-evaluate its previous announcement and establish a process to protect water resources in the Commonwealth. | |
| Industrial facilities dumped 12,727 pounds of toxic chemicals into Massachusetts’ waterways, according to a report released today by Environment Massachusetts: Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act. | |
| Today, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack issued an interim directive protecting pristine forests from new logging and drilling. The directive requires his personal approval for any new logging, drilling, or roadbuilding in nearly 50 million acres of our most pristine national forests. The measure does not protect roadless areas in Idaho. | |
| Today, as President Obama signs into law the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, Environment Massachusetts will be at the White House to witness it. Once enacted, two million acres of land will be designated wilderness in nine states, which is the largest expansion of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 15 years. However, the package of bills goes beyond wilderness designations. It also designates national heritage areas, national scenic trails, and national conservation areas. In total, the omnibus includes more than 160 different bills, including the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act and Lewis and Clark Mt. Hood Wilderness Act. | |
| As states face tight budgets in the economic downturn, a new report released by Environment America today draws on the experience of 15 states in securing reliable funding for open space programs. Among its key recommendations, Preserving America's Natural Heritage embraces bringing preservation measures directly to the voters – as is happening this fall in Minnesota, Ohio, Colorado, Georgia, and Florida. | |
| Boston- Late last night the Environmental Bond (now bill H5005) was passed by the House. | |
| Governor Deval Patrick is proposing funding of $100.6 million for the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in his budget for Fiscal Year 2009 – an increase of $7.7 million, or 8.3 percent, from FY 2008, and $16.7 million, or 20 percent, from FY 2007. | |
| More than 75% percent of industrial and municipal facilities across Massachusetts discharged more pollution into our waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow in 2005, according to Troubled Waters: An analysis of Clean Water Act compliance, a new report released today by Environment Massachusetts. | |
| The Massachusetts House of Representatives today passed a budget that includes an additional $9.6 million for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, over the previous year’s level. | |
| The House Committee on Ways and Means budget recommendations, released today, fails to increase funding for the Commonwealth’s forests and parks. | |
| As the state budget process heats up in the Legislature, a majority of legislators have signed a letter to the Chairs of the Committee on Ways and Means requesting an additional $10 million for the Department of Conservation and Recreation in the FY08 budget. | |
| Governor Patrick failed to deliver on his promise to stand up for our state forests and parks today when he released his FY08 budget recommendations. We are disappointed that Governor Patrick neglected to include an additional $10 million for our state forests and parks system, a promise he made during his campaign last fall. While turning our forests and parks around will take long term investment and stewardship, Gov. Patrick missed a critical first step today. | |
| BOSTON—Beach closings and warnings due to bacterial contamination have reached record numbers in Massachusetts, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s annual report released today by MASSPIRG and Clean Water Action. Of the 29 states included in the report, Massachusetts comes in 12 th in terms of warnings and closings. | |
| BOSTON—American taxpayers will pay more than $1.2 billion to clean up after polluters at Superfund toxic waste sites across the country in 2006, according to a new analysis released today by MASSPIRG. | |
| BOSTON – As they prepare for a Wednesday hearing on legislation to convert an island in the Boston Harbor Islands State Park and National Recreation Area into the nation’s largest LNG terminal and storage depot, the park’s defenders announced that they have the votes to stop the proposal. | |
| NEWTON—MASSPIRG, the statewide environmental and consumer advocacy organization, presented Representative Ruth Balser with their Public Interest Champion Award last night at the Newton Town Hall. | |
Eleanor Fort