“We think schools should be proactive and addressing this issue now to ensure that the drinking water that they’re providing to their children is safe,” says attorney Tom Irwin of the Conservation Law Foundation, which lobbied for the new law.
“Because this is one of Vermont’s vulnerable populations, we need to prioritize safe drinking water in schools,” Jen Duggan, director of Conservation Law Foundation Vermont, said in an interview Thursday.
Vermonters can no longer take the safety of our drinking water for granted. In 2016, the widespread contamination of drinking water in Bennington County with toxic chemicals grabbed our attention and forced the question: exactly how safe is our drinking water?
Schools and childcare centers – places where children spend so much time – can have unsafe levels of lead in their water, putting our kids’ health at risk. To ensure safe water, it’s time for parents and teachers to demand that schools test their water for lead and take measures necessary to protect the health of schoolchildren.
Decades ago, Fred Quimby taught his children how to fish and canoe in Jones Pond near his home in New Durham, New Hampshire. But this year, Fred had to go someplace else to teach his grandchildren to fish. That’s because Jones Pond, part of the Merrymeeting River, has suffered yet another outbreak of cyanobacteria –… Continue reading Protecting New Hampshire’s Rivers and Lakes from Toxic Blue-green Algae
“Nitrogen pollution is killing the Cape’s beautiful waterways,” said Christopher Kilian, Vice President of Strategic Litigation at CLF. “Fish kills, unpleasant odors and scum are becoming the norm, threatening to drive away the millions of tourists that flock to the area every year. These resorts should be leaders in protecting our precious waters, instead of flushing our health and our economy down the drain.”
“Today’s decision is a huge win for the city of South Portland, and it proves that local action can make a difference,” said Sean Mahoney, executive vice president and director of CLF Maine. “Big oil tried every legal trick in the book to try and invalidate this ordinance and they lost on every count.”
When the Rhode Island General Assembly convened for its 2018 session, CLF and our partners focused on several key measures aimed at combating climate change, reforming how energy projects are sited, and protecting our waters from offshore drilling. With progress on these issues stalled (or moving in reverse) at the national level, state and local… Continue reading Rhode Island General Assembly Fails to Make Progress on Environmental Initiatives, But Some Bad Bills Defeated
CLF’s Zero Waste program has identified eight New England landfills that want dangerous expansions, a surefire way to increase the pollution they emit into the air, soil, and water. We’re working to stop them from expanding.
Governor Raimondo’s “Task Force to Tackle Plastics” is a good start for the state to start taking on plastic pollution. But to really face the problem head-on, Rhode Island must ban single-use plastics and push the state closer to Zero Waste.
