Clean water is a fundamental human right. But 50 years ago, the nation’s rivers, lakes, and streams were anything but clean. The waterways that had powered the country’s economic growth for a century had become dirty dumping grounds for chemical waste, industrial pollution, and raw sewage. When Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972,… Continue reading Celebrating 50 Years of the Clean Water Act
On a recent visit to the Battery Wharf in the North End, we found some of the most egregious violations of the public’s rights to access and enjoy the waterfront that we’ve ever seen. Battery Wharf has not only privatized spaces that belong to the public, it has capitalized on them, charging high-end rental fees for areas that are supposed to be available to the public 24 hours a day, free of charge.
The cleanup of Boston Harbor wasn’t Senior Counsel Peter Shelley’s first big case with CLF (as a third-year law student in the late 1970s, he was part of the landmark effort to stop oil and gas drilling on Georges Bank), but it has certainly been the most iconic of his long career with the organization.… Continue reading From the Trenches: Peter Shelley and Boston Harbor
