News flash:  The Vermont legislative committee reviewing the Douglas Administration’s 11th-hour proposal to open state parks, forests, and wildlife management and natural areas to ATV use voted unanimously to object to the rule.  The bi-partisan vote 7-0 signals major legislative concern about the policy change the agency is proposing–currently state lands are closed to ATVs except to enable handicap access in limited circumstances–and the manner in which the agency tried to make this change.

Though this vote presents a major potential obstacle to the Agency’s plan to open state lands to this high-risk, high-impact activity, I’ve written before on this blog about how the Agency could still choose to move forward despite the objection.  For the full story read my “Riding Roughshod Part 2” post or check out the press clips collected on CLF’s web site.

For now, the legislature has done the right thing by erecting a roadblock.  But Republican Governor Jim Douglas isn’t running for re-election.  ATVers have been a loyal constituency for this governor and he’ll stop at nothing to repay that loyalty, the rule of law and public opinion be-damned.  Whether the Douglas Administration and the leaders at ANR decide to ride roughshod over the Committee objection remains to be seen. 

CLF is working hard to protect Vermont's sensitive public lands from this kind of abuse

For those of us concerned about negative impacts of ATV use in Vermont including but not limited to:

•  increased air, noise, and water pollution
•  threats to wildlife (both game species and rare, threatened and endangered species) and wildlife habitat
• the spread of invasive plants as the forest is disturbed to cut new trails
• added public safety risks
• conflicts between motorized and nonmotorized users
• rampant and destructive illegal off-trail riding
• overburdening of a state agency that has been devastated by budget cuts and cannot fulfill all of its basic land management dutie even without the added responsibility of montioring construction, maintenance, and enforcement around a new motorized trail network

now is the time to ask the full legislature to make a stand on this important issue.  For more information on how you can help, please contact CLF’s Vermont office!

Much like a joy-riding ATVer testing the power of his off-road machine, the leadership of Vermont’s Natural Resources agency seems hell-bent on riding roughshod over any obstacle in the way of its proposal to open state-owned forests, parks, and wildlife areas to recreational ATV trails.

As I wrote earlier on this blog, the agency leadership revved its engines and ran right over opposition from concerned members of the public who commented on the rule–by the agency’s own estimate, commenters opposed the proposal by a ratio of 4-to-1.  The professional objections of its own scientists, game wardens, and on-the-ground land managers didn’t slow agency leaders down either.  In public documents obtained by CLF and reported in the press, career Agency employees expressed concerns about the damage to public and private property caused by illegal ATV use that ANR already struggles to control with existing resources.  They also worried about the strain that managing the numerous public safety and environmental impacts surrounding ATV trails would place on an understaffed agency reeling from more job cuts.  

Vermont’s legislative process and the rule of law is the last obstacle in the way of ANR’s ATV proposal.  With your help, this could be the obstacle that stops this irresponsible proposal in its tracks.

Prior to a hearing of the legislative committee that serves as an important check against arbitrary and illegal power-grabs by the political appointees who run state agencies, news reports indicated that a bi-partisan majority of the committee’s legislators are prepared to formally object to the Agency’s proposal.  At the hearing, legislators listened politely as the agency’s top lawyer and its Secretary essentially claimed that the Secretary has inherent authority to allow state lands to be used however he sees fit and further that a single ambiguous sentence in a 1983 motor vehicle law specifically grants the Secretary unfettered discretion to write rules opening state lands to ATVs.  But the legislators had done their homework and had an answer for the agency’s questionable legal analysis. 

Representative Richard Marek (D-Newfane) proposed that the committee adopt a written objection to the rule that debunks the Agency’s claims demonstrating how it is contrary to the legislature’s intent and beyond the authority the legislature has granted to the agency.  You can read the committee’s proposed objection on CLF’s web site.  In keeping with the narrow focus of the committee, the proposed objection articulates reasons why the rule is an affront to good government process and the rule of law.  It doesn’t mention the many policy reasons why the ATV proposal is deeply flawed because those questions are best left to the full legislature.  It’s pretty clear that is where this issue may be headed come January.  A defiant agency leadership seems poised to adopt the rule even if the committee formally votes to object at its next meeting on December 15.

This sets the agency and the full legislature on a potential collision course and may also land the agency in court.  Though ANR can adopt the rule over the objection of the rules committee, the legislature could completely repeal the rule by passing a new law.  State law also makes it much easier for groups like CLF to challenge illegal rules when an agency moves forward in spite of a legislative objection. 

Here are three ways you can help protect Vermont forests, parks, and wildlife areas from being transformed into motorized theme parks by ANR:

1. Call your legislator and voice your opposition.  This is especially important if your legislator is on the administrative rules committee scheduled to vote on December 15.
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper expressing your opposition.
3. Make a donation to CLF so that we can continue our efforts to protect state lands in the legislature and, if need be, in court.

If you’re like me, you’re genuinely afraid of the global-warming future we’re facing if humankind doesn’t get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions A WHOLE LOT AND REAL FAST.

Like Al Gore and spiritual leaders from many faiths, you and me understand that global warming is a moral issue.  We also understand that unchecked global warming will wreak (and is wreaking) havoc with almost all facets of our economy ranging from food supply to the insurance industry (and we’ve already seen with AIG how human decisions affecting the insurance industry ripple throughout the entire economy).  If all that wasn’t bad enough, scientists have also predicted that continued rises in greenhouse gas emissions will deepen (and in some cases already is deepening) other existing ecological crises like water pollution,  ocean acidification, and species extinction.

So like me, I am sure you want to do every thing you can in your personal life and your civic life as a voter in the U.S.–the second largest overall greenhouse gas polluter in the world–to shrink the world’s carbon footprint.  You’ve done all the easy stuff–tires are pumped up, light bulbs are switched.  And you’ve done the smart thing by joining CLF, supporting our work on climate change solutions like energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean cars, and public transportation.

Now there’s another thing you can do to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  It’s something many of us have been meaning to do for years: LOSE WEIGHT.

That’s right, by finally shedding our unwanted pounds we could be contributing to carbon emissions cuts too.  According to the International Journal of Epidemiology, 2009, the world could save 1.1 Billion Tonnes in carbon emissions from transportation sources and from industrial food-production if a population of 1 Billion people went from being obese to being lean.  The study authors reason that the more weight a car or plane has to carry, the more fossil fuel it has to burn to get us where we are going.  In addition, the authors indicate that obese people need more food energy to make it through the day.  That’s more food we have to grow and transport to market referred to by one author as “the oil we eat.”

1.1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions is nothing to scoff at.  According to an EPA website: “[C]arbon dioxide emissions from oil combustion jumped 1.1 billion metric tons between 1960 and 2001, accounting for 40% of the total increase in U.S. carbon emissions. The transportation sector primarily drove this increase. Carbon dioxide emissions from coal also climbed 1.1 billion metric tons between 1960 and 2001, accounting for another 40% of the total increase in U.S. carbon emissions. Increased electricity generation from coal-fired power plants primarily fueled this rapid growth.”

The Journal of Epidemiology study thus provides us with yet another compelling reason to reform our big industrial food complex and the bad eating habits it’s fostered in America and other wealthy nations.  As Michael Pollan has observed : “Cheap food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of that food are charged to the future.”  Now we’ve got even more evidence that increased global warming pollution is among the many social and environmental costs we are charging to the future by fattening ourselves up.

This gives a whole new meaning to the term “Low carbon diet.”

When headlines in your local media regularly highlight mishaps at the old and infirm nuke plant in your neighborhood, you’d probably start to wonder whether it makes sense to keep feeding it fissile fuel for another twenty years.  That’s what we’re pondering here in Vermont, where Entergy Nuclear’s “Vermont Yankee” seems to be in the news–and lampooned in editorial cartoons–every other week.  Exhibit A:

Credit: Tim Newcomb http://www.newcombstudios.com/cartoons.html

Just two weeks ago, in a story headlined “Yankee Plant’s Reliability Questioned” Vermont Public Radio reported that Yankee’s owners failed to disclose the fact that the plant has storm drains that flow to the Connecticut River and have been contaminated with radioactive Cobalt-60.  Apparently, only “minute particles” of the raidoisotope have been found in the river sediments (thank goodness!) and the problem that led to the contamination was supposedly fixed years ago.  Nonetheless, Entergy Nuclear’s failure to tell the nuclear engineer hired by the Vermont Legislature to monitor Yankee’s operation about the problem doesn’t inspire great confidence.

Trying to keep up with all of Yankee’s well-publicized mishaps is no easy task.  Your friends at CLF have tried to make it easier for you with our new fact sheet “30 Big Mistakes (and counting): VERMONT YANKEE IS YANKING YOUR CHAIN.” You can get a copy by clicking here.

For those of you who’ve been keeping score already and who know that giving the operators of this plant another twenty years would be a big mistake on Vermont’s part, please take action!  You can tell the Vermont Public Service Board you don’t want another twenty years of having Vermont’s chain yanked by Yankee’s owners by clicking here or you can print out a copy of the “30 Big Mistakes” and send it to your Vermont state legislator.

There is nothing more gratifying for CLF advocates than to be able to work with our members in translating big-picture policy goals down to the local level.  Over the last couple of years, I had that opportunity as a result of the City of Burlington’s efforts to adopt a stormwater pollution control ordinance to ensure that Vermont’s biggest city was doing its part to prevent pollution to Lake Champlain.  The idea was the brainchild of CLF member Scott Mapes, a lawyer and engineer who specializes in low impact development techniques to manage stormwater runoff.

As a member of the City’s Conservation Commission, a long-time lover of Lake Champlain, and a regulation-savvy lawyer, Scott was the City’s clean-water conscience and a driving force that overcame bureaucratic inertia to get the ball rolling on  this major project.  Scott’s principled persistence gradually led to enthusiastic buy-in at the highest levels of city government.  His multi-year effort to get the City to take stormwater more seriously was really something to watch.  As the process matured, CLF had a chance to weigh in by reviewing drafts of the ordinance, providing guidance and legal research assistance, and echoing Scott’s message that adoption of the ordinance was necessary for full compliance with the Clean Water Act.

After this experience working with Scott, it came as no surprise to read the headline in today’s Burlington Free Press announcing “Burlington man honored for stormwater efforts.”  In recognition of his work on the stormwater ordinance, Scott was named “Citizen Planner of the Year” by the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association and he received a similar award today from the Vermont Planning Association.

Congratulations to Scott and to all CLF members who advance CLF’s mission through their support of the organization AND their leadership on the local level.

With the Red Sox in the playoffs yet again, I know I am not alone in the hope that we’ll be hearing a lot of the Standell’s 1966 tribute to Boston and the Charles River–”Dirty Water”–throughout the month of October as the Sox go for their third World Series trophy of the young century.

As much fun as it is to sing this song in the afterglow of a Sox victory, it’s sad that the label “dirty water” still fits the Charles River and so many other dirty waters across New England more than 40 years after the song came out and more than thirty-five years after the passage of the Clean Water Act.  One of the biggest problems now–blue-green algae blooms or scums (like the one on the Charles pictured below).  Beyond just making waters look and smell disgusting, swimming in water during or shortly after one of these blooms can cause skin rashes and ingesting water tainted with some blue-greens can cause unpleasant gastrointestinal problems.

Of all the reasons why we don’t really love that dirty water, scientists working on a cutting edge new theory may have identified a scary new one: a potential link between ingestion of toxins produced by blue-green algae and debilitating brain diseases like ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

An article in the Spring 2009 UNH magazine details the work of two New England scientists whose research is exploring the connection between clusters of ALS sufferers–i.e., areas where the incidence of disease is abnormally higher than in the general populations–and lakes where blue-green algae blooms have been or are still a problem.  While scientists have discovered some startling links–discussed further in the article–more study is certainly needed.  Raising awareness is an important first step.

In the meantime, CLF is continuing to advocate for solutions to the water pollution problems that causes blue-green algae blooms.  Simply put, the cause is too much of an otherwise good thing: nutrients.  Phosphorus and nitrogen are nutrients that exist in abundant quantities on this planet.  Under normal circumstances, most water bodies contain just enough of these nutrients to promote healthy growth of plant and animal life.  But improperly-treated pollution discharges have the effect of concentrating and overloading these waters, creating conditions in which the toxin-producing blue-green algae thrive.  These pollution sources include:

• poorly-controlled discharges of runoff from paved surfaces like big-box store parking lots, construction sites, rooftops, and city streets
• discharges from sewage treatment plants
• runoff from farm fields overloaded with manure

In addition to our efforts to clean up the Charles River, CLF’s Clean Water program is a driving force for cleanup of nutrient-overloaded bays and estuaries on Cape Cod, New Hampshire’s Great Bay, Vermont’s Lake Champlain,  and is supporting Maine’s efforts to adopt stringent standards to control nutrient pollution discharges to coastal and inland waters in that state.  Your continued support of CLF’s work is helping to restore these water bodies to health. And, if the scientific research establishes a firm link between brain diseases and blue-green algae blooms, your support of CLF’s work may also help protect the health of present and future generations at risk of exposure to the brain-debilitating toxins that certain blue-greens blooms produce.

In an insightful reaction to President Obama’s health care speech to a joint session of Congress, noted author Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food) said something very provocative on the pages of the New York Times.  Unlike South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, he didn’t accuse the president of lying.  But he did make pretty clear that the health care debate thus far has ignored a very significant part of the problem: an acknowledgment that our transformation into a fast food nation is playing a huge role in making health care more costly and less accessible for all Americans.

In his Op-ed titled “Big Food vs. Big Insurance“, he writes:

Cheap food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of that food are charged to the future. There’s lots of money to be made selling fast food and then treating the diseases that fast food causes. One of the leading products of the American food industry has become patients for the American health care industry.

He’s got a very compelling point, and it becomes even more compelling if you follow the “environmental costs” thread that he mentions only in passing.

Much of federal food policy is all about subsidies for corn, both as a feed crop for fatty meats raised under inhumane conditions on “factory farms” and for use in the ubiquitous sweetener high-fructose corn syrup found in calorie-laden soda and other processed foods throughout the supermarket.  Most of the corn grown in this country requires intensive application of nutrient-rich fertilizers, especially those with nitrogen.  A lot of the fertilizer gets dumped into rivers either through excess application onto the fields or through the mishandling of manure from the animals who eat all that corn without fully digesting the nutrients.

The water pollution problems caused by our heavily-subsidized fertilizer- intensive agriculture only serve to exacerbate our reliance on cheap and unhealthy food.  The result are seasonal “dead zones“: areas in polluted waterbodies like the Gulf of Mexico where algae blooms fed by the fertilizer runoff deplete waters of oxygen that fish need to live.  So to grow corn to fuel the increasing consumption of unhealthy process foods and soda related to the explosion of costly and increasingly-common health problems like Type 2 diabetes, we’re using fertilizers that destroy the capacity of fisheries to provide alternative sources of much healthier nutrition.  A vicious cycle if ever there was one.

Self-defeating food policies that poison and destroy fisheries aren’t the only link to rising health care costs.  As CLF reported in our “Conservation Matters” article on mercury pollution, “there is a high correlation between children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and other neurological disorders and mothers who have ingested high amounts of methylmercury from poisoned fish and water.”  To prevent these costly, life-long health conditions Northeastern states warn pregnant women and young children not to eat freshwater fish from the over “10,000 lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, as well as more than 46,000 miles of river deemed too toxic for fish consumption.” The pollution comes from coal-fired power plants whose owners refuse to sacrifice a small part of their enormous profits to install readily-available mercury pollution controls. CLF is continuing to fight for tougher mercury standards in hopes that New England’s freshwater fisheries–a historical source of great sustenance for our region’s people–will once again provide safe, nutritious food rather than potential health hazards.

There’s no doubt that health insurance reform is desperately needed, but to succeed in controlling costs and making us healthier it must accompanied by reforms to our food and environmental policies.

It’s no surprise that Fox News’ dunderhead commentator and global warming denier Sean Hannity is attending a Labor Day rally supporting the destructive coal mining practice of mountaintop removal.  It’s no surprise that gun-toting, washed-up 80′s rocker Ted Nugent will be there too, spewing his crass, foul-mouthed brand of conservative hatred (warning–adult language on linked content).  What is surprising is that if you are a Verizon Wireless customer, you may be helping to pay for this celebration of environmental degradation!

That’s right, if you visit the home page for the “Friends of America” rally–after you watch the video of the coal company CEO decrying how “environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your job” (last time I checked, the coal companies were part of “corporate america”)–you can visit the “sponsors” page to find out who is putting up the $$ for this “rally.”  After you scroll through the long list of big coal companies who are destroying Appalachia and fighting tooth and nail against any meaningful efforts to reduce global warming pollution, you will see Verizon Wireless listed as one of the corporate America benefactors of this gathering of malefactors.

I’m guessing that there are a lot of Verizon Wireless customers like me who believe that GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL AND IT IS A REAL PROBLEM!  So what can we do to change Verizon’s position on this issue?

Our friends and occasional coalition partners at the Center for Biological Diversity are the ones who brought this to my attention.  They have a great action alert that you can use to call out Verizon Wireless for their environmentally unfriendly use of the money you send them for cell service. 

If you want to go one step further, then I suggest picking up the phone.  If you’ve ever worked for a company with a call center, you know that clogged lines cost them money.  So let’s clog Verizon’s phone lines like their friends at the coal companies clog the once-pristine mountain streams with mining waste. Pick up your Verizon phone, call customer service by dialing *611 from your cell or (800) 922-0204 from your home, and register your complaint about Verizon’s support for an event designed to block meaningful progress on climate change.  This is one time when you can feel good about waiting on hold to talk to the phone company’s customer service rep.

Warning: Bigger, faster, and more abundant mosquitoes may be breeding in a river or stream near you.   A new scientific study presented at this month’s meeting of the Ecological Society of America reaches the scary conclusion that mosquitoes–carriers of the West Nile Virus and other diseases–thrive in waterways contaminated by sewage.  As if we needed even more public health reasons to clean up and prevent sewage pollution!

Scientists have concluded that sewage spills and overflows are a boon to these bloodthirsty pests.

Sadly, untreated sewage pollution still flows regularly into many of New England’s rivers and streams as a result of sewage spills from aging or improperly maintained sewage collection and pumping systems.  For example, when a rupture in a Burlington, VT city sewage collection pipe went unrepaired for 8 days in 2005, it released approximately 4 million gallons of raw sewage into the river until sewage treatment plant operators finally addressed the problem.  In the wake of this high-profile incident, CLF led the effort for passage of the “spill bill”–a Vermont law that requires sewage treatment plant operators to undertake enahnced sewage spill prevention and emergency response measures and to notify the public when sewage spills occur.  The public has a right to know when its waters are being contaminated with spilled sewage (this Agency of Natural Resources web site includes a report of all recent spills) and to demand that action be taken to prevent sewage overflows through regular maintenance and greater investment in clean water infrastructure.

As with so many other important environmental and public health issues, CLF’s efforts in one of the New England states are helping to lead the country toward a future with cleaner water.

Currently, Congress is debating passage of the S. 937 “Sewage Overflow Community Right to Know Act.”  Like the Vermont law championed by CLF, this bill would amend the Clean Water Act to require mandatory reporting of sewer spills and the cleanup, mitigation, and prevention measures adopted as a result.  According to our friends at American Rivers in D.C., the bill has passed through the House of Representatives and through the Senate’s Environment and Public Works committee.  With your help, the Clean Water Act will soon ensure our collective right to know when our rivers, streams, lakes, and beaches have been contaminated by raw sewage.  Ask your Senator to cosponsor S. 937 and to work for its passage this year– in the meantime be sure to stock up on citronella and bug dope…