This commentary by a Vermont mom in Saint George is being published anonymously to protect the privacy of her child. No level of lead is safe. Vermont legislators are right now considering legislation that would require all schools and childcare centers to test for lead and fix the problem if it’s found. When our daughter… Continue reading Living with Lead Poisoning: One Mother’s Story
“Vermonters shouldn’t have to wonder if they’re being poisoned every time they turn on their tap,” said Jen Duggan, Vice President and Director of CLF Vermont. “Until the federal government wakes up and takes these toxic chemicals off the market, it’s up to states to protect us. This law is a huge first step in ensuring Vermonters have safe, clean drinking water.”
Here in New England, we rely too much on fracked gas to heat and power our homes and businesses. If we want to avoid a climate catastrophe, we need to end fossil fuel use by 2050.
Vermont is more than halfway through this legislative session, and there is still no clear path for funding. Our legislature has promised to fund clean water initiatives for years, yet they have kicked the funding can down the road again and again.
Plastics are everywhere, and they aren’t all recyclable. Until there’s a new system that creates a structure for using less plastic from the beginning, here’s a handy guide to what can and can’t go in the bin.
“For decades, the EPA has stood idly by while manufacturers produced poisonous PFAS chemicals that ended up in our drinking water,” said Jen Duggan, Vice President and Director of CLF Vermont. “It’s now up to state leaders to clean up this mess, and Vermont is clearly up to the challenge. This bill is a critical step forward in the process to repair the damage that has been done and prevent future harm from these toxic forever chemicals.”
American recycling is in a crisis. But this crisis is a chance to create a better system for tomorrow. Today’s products and their packaging are often made from plastic and designed for disposal. By holding the producers of those products accountable for their polluting products, we can create a system that’s better for our communities and better for our planet.
Clean water belongs to all of us, but we simply won’t have clean water without long-term investment in this shared resource. We are halfway through this legislative session and there is still no clear path for clean water funding. The governor’s proposal falls short on the amount needed to clean up our waters because it relies on existing revenues that are needed for other important state programs. The Legislature has yet to put forth a serious plan to raise the necessary revenue.
Since Sean Mahoney, CLF’s Executive Vice President, and his wife put a rooftop solar panel system on their barn, they’ve noticed a huge difference in their energy bills. All told, their annual energy costs have decreased by up to 80 percent! For the Mahoneys, installing solar panels was about both saving money on electricity and about reducing their carbon footprint.
Weber said accountability and monitoring are particularly important because the job ahead is so huge. “We need to remove around 213 metric tons of phosphorus from Lake Champlain,” Weber said. “That’s just Lake Champlain. There are other obligations in other watersheds. We’re not near that goal.”
