Protecting America’s Water Amid Growing Threats
Channel: eesionline
Date: 2017-06-30

More information at: http://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/062917water

The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), and Clean Water Action held a briefing on federal protection for clean water, which is increasingly under threat from steep proposed EPA budget cuts and recent decisions rescinding key federal rules (including the rules that applied the Clean Water Act to smaller waterways and wetlands or prohibited discharge of coal mining waste into streams). Meanwhile, aging infrastructure, population growth, and climate change—with its droughts and floods—put an ever-increasing strain on America’s waterways and drinking water. This requires increased investment and sharper focus on science-based policy simply to maintain existing water quality—let alone improve it—and protect water resources from systemic failures like the ones experienced in Flint, MI, Newburgh, NY, and many other places across the country. Speakers discussed impacts of proposed funding cuts and rollbacks in clean water protections on public and environmental health, and how to undo the damage.

Speakers:
Rep. Sean Maloney, U.S. Representative (NY-18)
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=55m24s

Brent Bolin, Chesapeake Regional Director and Acting Political Director, Clean Water Action
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=3m
Download slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/062917_Brent_Bolin.pdf

John Cronin, Original Hudson Riverkeeper and Time Magazine “Hero for the Planet”; Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs, Pace University’s Academy for Applied Environmental Studies
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=12m14s

Mustafa Ali, Founder and Former Director, EPA Environmental Justice Office; Senior Vice President of Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization, Hip Hop Caucus
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=20m52s

Jeffrey Levinton, Marine Ecologist, The River Project; Expert on marine community ecology, restoration ecology, and evolutionary biology
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=31m21s
Download slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/062917_Jeffrey_Levinton.pdf

Aaron Mair Former President, Sierra Club Board of Directors; former Epidemiological-Spatial Analyst, New York State Department of Health
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=39m

Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Action Director, Clearwater
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=1h3m39s

Maija Niemisto, Education Director, Clearwater
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=1h30m15s

Les Jacobowitz, Attorney and Partner, Arent Fox LLP
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=1h32m35s
Download slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/062917_Les_Jacobowitz.pdf

Brenda Lee Richardson, Interim Managing Director, Earth Conservation Corps
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=1h45m11s

Michael Frisk, Professor, Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=1h50m42s
Download slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/062917_Michael_Frisk.pdf

Joseph Warren, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University Acoustic Laboratory for Ecological Studies
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=2h21s

Tinya Seeger, Daughter of Pete Seeger
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=2h7m45s

Q&A Session
https://youtu.be/wv__iY3cYP0?t=1h5m35s

This briefing was a timely reprise of historic events in 1970, when Pete Seeger sailed the sloop Clearwater from the Hudson River to Washington, DC, and held a Capitol Hill forum on clean water credited with being a turning point in the fight for the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). Five decades later, the CWA and other federal laws and policies have vastly improved the quality and health of U.S. waterways and drinking water resources. But that progress is now threatened, so the Clearwater again returned to Washington, DC, and delivered a “cargo of concern” for clean water and science-based policy to Congress. As Pete Seeger said in 1970, “We’re going to Washington because the problems of the American rivers can’t be solved by people like me who live on them. Only the federal government has the power to enact and enforce the laws that are needed.”