Summer 2018 ENews

Thank You, MOM’s Organic Market Gaithersburg

We were super excited to be the recipient of a MOM’s Organic Market 5% Day at the grand opening of their Gaithersburg store June 1 – 3, 2018! MOM’s is an important partner for our work protecting clean water and promoting healthy, organic soils! The store was super busy all weekend and we got to meet a bunch of MOM’s customers. Their grocery shopping dollars will support our local efforts to protect your clean water and our Fair Farms campaign. We look forward to future events and activities with MOM’s Organic Market!

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Exelon Wants a 50-Year Free Pass for Conowingo Dam

Waterkeepers Chesapeake and the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association filed an administrative appeal on June 8, 2018, urging the Maryland Department of the Environment to reconsider its recent water quality certification for Exelon’s Conowingo Dam. Exelon has requested a new 50-year federal license to operate the dam. In order for this exclusive license to be granted, Exelon must meet a significant burden, including showing Maryland, that all impacts to state water quality will be addressed through conditions on this license. Exelon has profited billions from this public resource and has a guaranteed profit as long as the Susquehanna River flows for the next 50 years. But instead Exelon filed a challenge of the 401 Water Quality Certification, demonstrating that they would rather pay lawyers to fight to avoid responsibility, rather than investing in protect the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.

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Fight Continues to Stop EPA’s Assaults on Clean Water Protections

Last week, the scandal-ridden EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned. We, along with other environmental groups, rejoiced in his resignation – but unfortunately our work to stop rollbacks of environmental protections and to fight the take over of the EPA by the fossil fuels industry is not over. The likely new head of the EPA, Andrew Wheeler, is expected to be just as bad as Pruitt, and maybe worse given his expertise in navigating the federal legislative and regulatory spheres. Read how we are joining fights to stop direct assaults to on our clean water and drinking water resources: rollback of coal ash regulations, and the repeal of Clean Water Rules and regulation of polluted groundwater. EPA’s attempts to weaken clean water and drinking water regulations are nothing more than a total giveaway to industry and must be rejected.

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Planned Fracked Gas Pipelines Will Crisscross Our Watershed

Efforts continue to stop two huge pipelines that will cut through the region: the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. There are several legal challenges pending on both pipelines but construction continues. Waterkeepers Cheseapeake recently filed a request to the Virginia State Water Control Board asking them to direct the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct stream-by-stream analyses of crossings and to impose the necessary standards to ensure full protection of Virginia’s water resources. We also requested that the Board put on hold MVP and ACP development until all legal and regulatory challenges are resolved.

Earlier this year, the Maryland Department of the Environment approved a water quality permit for TransCanada’s pipeline that will tunnel under the Potomac River near Hancock, MD, with some special conditions. This approval was deeply disappointing to us and all our partners in the No Potomac Pipeline campaign. Efforts continue to stop the pipeline.

Dominion Energy’s plans to build a natural gas compressor station across Potomac River from Mount Vernon revealed there is more to it than spoiling the view. There will be a spider web of pipelines bringing fracked from the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in Pennsylvania to the Cove Point LNG export facility on the Chesapeake Bay. Even the Eastern Shore is being threatened by 171-mile fracked gas pipeline starting in Rising Sun (Cecil County), passing through all Eastern Shore counties (except for Worchester), before crossing into Virginia to end at a proposed power station in Accomack County.

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2018 Legislative Wrap Up

In the first few months of the year, we are very busy working on legislation along with our Waterkeepers. In Maryland, we worked to increase public access to government records, increase public participation at the Public Service Commission, prevent the use of harmful chemicals, decrease the amount of foam in local waterways, and close loopholes under current law that enable the net loss of forests in Maryland — to name a few. Our Fair Farms campaign was busy during the legislative session and had a couple of successes in getting funding for the Farmers Market Matching Program and the legalization of hemp production. In Virginia and Pennsylvania, there was legislation on the protection of oysters, conservation funds, and safe disposal of coal ash — and much more.

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Get Out on the Water with Our Waterkeepers

Every year Waterkeeper Alliance sponsors the SPLASH series of events to celebrate the importance of clean water by providing opportunities to get out on local waterways to swim, paddle, fish, and make a SPLASH! The SPLASH events, sponsored nationally by Toyota, are hosted by local Waterkeeper organizations to engage community members and outdoor enthusiasts in events comprised of water-based recreational activities like swimming, paddling, kayaking, fishing, and much more. There are twenty events for the 2018 SPLASH season, four of which are hosted by our Waterkeepers in the Chesapeake Bay region. Our Waterkeepers are hosting several of other events throughout the year! Check our website calendar for an event near you!

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Our Waterkeepers are Monitoring Your Waterways

Our Waterkeepers are experts on their local waterways. They monitor water quality in several different ways. They review pollution reports required under Clean Water Act permits and analyze government sponsored data collection. Our Waterkeepers also monitor water quality directly by conducting robust water sampling and then analyze and report their results in annual report card reports, interactive maps and mobile apps. The Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper’s water quality monitoring program just received EPA’s highest designation for accuracy. Read more about recently published report cards.

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WETA’s River Rangers!

Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. The River Rangers program is kid-centered with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings. Get the free toolkit here and start exploring!

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Welcome Cindy Wallace!

Cindy was hired in February as our new part-time Administrative Manager. Cindy returns to the Waterkeeper movement after a few years working for a sustainable home furnishing start-up retail business. Prior to that, she helped one of our member organizations, South River Federation, in its early days of moving from a sole volunteer organization. She is getting our office organized and working to streamline internal procedures and is excited to be involved in supporting our Waterkeepers and associated campaigns.

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SAVE THE DATE for our 2nd annual In Defense of Water fundraiser. We’ll be gathering the evening of October 4, 2018, at the Audubon Naturalist Society’s Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, Maryland for an evening of celebrating our clean water successes and raising funds for and awareness of the work that still remains to make our waters drinkable, swimmable and fishable for all. Stay tuned for more details!

See you out on the water!

Betsy Nicholas
Executive Director
WATERKEEPERS® Chesapeake

P.S. You can support our work protecting your clean water by making a donation today!

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10% of sales of each glassbaby “chesapeake” hand-blown candle holder is donated to Waterkeepers Chesapeake! Buy one today!

We have made it easier to find and report pollution — and to report the fun things you see and do on the river. Working with Chesapeake Commons, we developed the free Water Reporter App so you can send reports directly to your local Waterkeeper! Download it today!

Take Swim Guide with you – wherever you go! The free Swim Guide app makes it easy to know the water quality at your beach. The 7,000 freshwater and marine beaches and swimming sites on the Swim Guide app and website make finding clean, swimmable water simple.

 

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