RvK Made Voice Heard at Listening Sessions
August 9, 2010
Riverkeeper Team
Water Quality and America’s Great Outdoors Initiative
By Paul Gallay
Riverkeeper made sure that the top-level federal officials who visited the Hudson Valley last week as part of President Obama’s “America’s Great Outdoors” initiative heard us loud and clear: the key to “America’s great outdoors” is great water quality.
- In session after session, Riverkeeper pushed for more federal investment to fix crumbling municipal water treatment plants. These plants are the first line of defense against pollution in the Hudson River and Metro NY Watershed. We’re going backwards, not forwards here, folks.
- We then told EPA it needs to step up, and stop harmful “hydrofracking” natural gas drilling. The feds are coming to Binghamton next week for a public hearing on the issue [Riverkeeper’s Craig Michaels will be there, telling them not to Frack with NY’s Water], but the time for hearings and talk is coming to an end – it’s time to make sure the damage our region has suffered already is reversed, not made worse by more drilling.
- In the wake of crippling budget cuts to New York State DEC, we challenged the feds to keep the state’s feet to the fire on Clean Water Act permitting and enforcement. EPA has independent authority to enforce the act, but delegates much of that responsibility to the state. If NY isn’t doing the job right, federal law requires EPA to step in and fix the problem.
RiverkeeperDon’t Frack with NY’s Water
Related campaigns
Riverkeeper Sweep campaign
Cleaning up shorelines along the Hudson River and its tributaries
Water quality monitoring
Riverkeeper is the go-to source for information about the quality of the water along the Hudson River and its tributaries