Runoff from large parking lots, big box stores, and strip malls is not currently regulated by the EPA. However, these properties contribute significant runoff to nearby wetlands, streams and rivers, CLF officials said.
In Massachusetts, landfills are reaching capacity, and the costs for waste disposal are growing. But expanding landfills or shifting our burden onto others will not fix the problem. Instead, we must produce less trash.
To combat climate change, we need to switch to clean, renewable energy, and that needs to happen now.
As advocates, we cheer when elected officials stand against environmental racism and for equity in siting, but these concepts are often abstract for most of the public. In its tale of two substations, Eversource has unwittingly illustrated the concepts vividly, while proving that infrastructure gets built more quickly when the process is fair and the company works with rather than against affected communities.
Bradley Campbell, Conservation Law Foundation president and CEO, joined to discuss various environmental headlines, including Gov. Maura Healey’s climate plans. For the full story, click here.
The climate crisis is already affecting our lives. From floods to extreme heat, to lack of consistent snow on our mountains, these changing conditions are affecting our health, our homes, our livelihoods and our treasured pastimes here in Vermont.
The state’s Global Warming Solutions Act and environmental justice laws are a great start. They are already having an impact on the ground. Now is the time to build on these successes and go further to protect our communities.
In the last five years, the foundation successfully settled eight lawsuits against bus vendors, four of which serve schools.
“We really have to put the pressure on to get these companies to transition,” said Heather Govern, vice president and director of CLF’s Clean Air and Water Program.
Christopher Kilian is a lawyer at the Conservation Law Foundation, a nonprofit that sued the state and Mashpee, arguing that Massachusetts law makes it illegal for towns to allow septic tanks that directly or indirectly release pollutants, including nitrogen, into surface water.
“Urban communities suffer disproportionately from toxic, polluted air,” said Heather Govern, director of CLF’s Clean Air and Water program, in a press release. “Holyoke and Worcester are two of the cities most burdened by negative health impacts like asthma because of this type of pollution. Durham School Services must own up to its role in this problem.”
Staci Rubin, the Vice President of Environmental Justice at Conservation Law Foundation, calls Monday’s event, “a victory, 32 years in the making.”
