Come to the Green Expo and learn about ways to: Save Energy and Money (solar, wind, geothermal, home energy audits)
Get property tax credits for Stormwater management
How to Green your Home and Garden
Improve the Quality of our rivers and the Chesapeake Bay
Live a sustainable and healthy lifestyle
Expo will feature local environmental agencies and nonprofits, and local and regional businesses that offer green products and services

March 20, 1-4 pm
Davidsonville Elementary School
962 W. Central Avenue Free Admission
For info: www.DACA-MD.org or call 443-254-2058 or 301—775-3776

Exhibitors include AA County Recycling, AA County Forestry Board, Watershed Stewards Academy, Rainscaping Campaign, Baywise Master Gardeners, South River Federation, Patuxent Riverkeeper, AA County Rec and Parks, Chesapeake Environmental Protection Association, Clean Currents, BGE peak Rewards, Terralogos, Global Baskets, Owens Comfort Systems, Furbish Company, local solar businesses, landscaping, plants nurseries and more!

Native plants and $60 Rain barrels for sale!

You can view a promotional video clip about this performance on You-Tube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCsuqDwl0e0

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February 9th, 10:30am; Town & Country Garden Club

The Home of Merrily Hardisty; 5700 Springfield Drive; Bethesda, Maryland

Note: This event is open to members of the Garden Cub only

http://ecopolitology.org/2010/01/22/environmental-debate-robert-f-kennedy-jr-vs-don-blankenship/

Charleston, WV, Friday, November 20, 2009

Massey Energy Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship and Waterkeeper Alliance President Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will come together for a public discussion at the University of Charleston on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at 6:30 p.m.  The event, Forum on the Future of Energy, will be moderated by UC President Edwin H. Welch.

The forum will take place in Geary Auditorium before an invitation-only audience, but another 2,000 seats will be open to the public for a live remote broadcast in Eddie King Gymnasium.

Both participants are looking forward to the conversation.  “American energy policy impacts jobs, the economy, and national security,” said Blankenship. “I’m pleased to have the opportunity to address these important issues with Dr. Welch and Mr. Kennedy and clarify what I believe is the right direction for our country’s future.”

“I am looking forward to meeting Mr. Blankenship in Charleston to finally engage openly in the critical dialogue over the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of mountaintop removal,” stated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  “Mountaintop removal has devastated, corrupted and impoverished West Virginia, but it is not just a local issue. The devastating ripples from these blasts reverberate across the country and around the world, in the form of mercury in all of our watersheds, coal ash poisoning our drinking water, ozone and particulates that sicken our citizens, and escalating global warming. There is no more important issue facing our nation than our energy future. It’s my hope that this debate helps finally put the true facts about mountaintop removal in front of the American public”

Richmond-based Massey Energy is central Appalachia’s largest coal producer, and Blankenship has been a vocal critic of both U.S. trade policy and climate-change legislation.  In a recent interview in Forbes, he referred to global warming as “a hoax and a Ponzi scheme,” saying that clean coal and carbon sequestration are “not do-able,” and that “none of it matters because of the Asian use of coal and because there’s really no proof of global warming.”  In the same interview, he indicated that coal is the country’s only chance to be energy independent, and the industry could be the source of the wealth needed to develop the next generation of energy.

Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is president of Waterkeeper Alliance and chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper. He was named a Time Magazine “Hero for the Planet,” and is the best-selling author of Crimes Against Nature. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic, and co-host of “Ring of Fire” on Air America Radio.  Kennedy has referred to mountaintop removal mining as “the worst environmental tragedy in American history,” and an “Appalachian apocalypse.” (Washington Post, July 3, 2009).

UC President Ed Welch sees the forum as an opportunity for the University of Charleston to help flesh out the arguments and issues surrounding the debate over the role of coal in America’s energy future.  “We are thrilled to be able to bring together two individuals who are deeply involved in this issue on the national stage,” said Welch.  “The future direction of U.S. energy policy is a vital concern to the people of West Virginia, many of whom rely on the coal industry for their livelihood.  It is in everyone’s best interest to promote this discussion.”

Waterkeeper’s Director of Advocacy Scott Edwards expressed the view of the organization that the debate’s time has come. “From extraction to transportation to burning and disposal, our continued use of coal is having dire consequences for our environmental and human health,” he said.  “The question that needs to be answered is not if we phase out coal use, but when do we do jettison this dirty fossil fuel from our energy portfolio. And I think the answer to that question is clear: as soon as possible.”

Coal Ash Landfill in Prince George’s County is Polluting Maryland Waters

WASHINGTON, D.C.///January 15, 2010///Environmental groups announced their support today for the Maryland Department of the Environment’s decision to take enforcement action against Mirant MD Ash Management, LLC and Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC for violations of the federal Clean Water Act and state law at the Brandywine coal ash landfill. The groups include the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and the Patuxent Riverkeeper.

Jen Peterson, EIP staff attorney, said: “We are pleased to see MDE take action to stop illegal pollution at the Brandywine coal ash landfill. So-called ‘dry’ coal ash landfills across the country are slowly leaching toxic pollution into creeks, rivers, and groundwater.”

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) sent a letter to Mirant today announcing its intent to file a lawsuit in federal court for violations of federal and state law at the Brandywine coal ash landfill in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

“It’s encouraging to see the Maryland Department of the Environment step up and do something about the harmful impacts of Mirant’s coal ash pollution on Maryland’s waters and wildlife,” said Adam Kron, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “Our hope is that Mirant will clean up its act and take full responsibility for the consequences of its landfill.”

Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and the Patuxent Riverkeeper sent a notice of intent to sue letter for violations of the Clean Water Act at the Brandywine CCW Landfill on November 19, 2009. The groups claim Mirant is illegally discharging toxic pollutants into Mataponi Creek and its tributaries through outfalls and leaks in disposal cells. The Environmental Integrity Project and the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Maryland School of Law are acting as co-counsel for the four groups.

Lyndsay Moseley, who works on coal ash issues for the Sierra Club, said: “We’re very pleased that Maryland is doing the right thing to protect its people from toxic coal ash. Unfortunately, there are dangerous ash dumps like this all over the country, including in states that aren’t yet taking action. To truly protect public health and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency needs to move forward to adopt strong, federally enforceable standards for coal ash disposal sites across the country.”

“It is great to see the state environmental agency holding polluters accountable for their actions. We applaud MDE for taking this action against Mirant and hope to see more intervention in the future,” said Diana Dascalu-Joffe, staff attorney for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper, said: “We are thrilled that MDE has decided exercise its enforcement obligations and protect Marylanders from this public health threat that poses the potential of real harm to citizens and their waterway.”

A copy of the Maryland Department Notice-of-Intent to Sue letter is available at www.environmentalintegrity.org.

ABOUT THE GROUPS

The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 by former EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate for effective enforcement of environmental laws. EIP has three goals: 1) to provide objective analyses of how the failure to enforce or implement environmental laws increases pollution and affects public health; 2) to hold federal and state agencies, as well as individual corporations, accountable for failing to enforce or comply with environmental laws; and 3) to help local communities obtain the protection of environmental laws.

Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than one million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org.

The Sierra Club is America’s oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Inspired by nature, we are 1.3 million of your friends and neighbors, working together to protect our communities and the planet. For more information, go to http://www.sierraclub.org on the Web.

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Its mission is to educate and mobilize citizens of this region in a way that fosters a rapid societal switch away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy and energy-efficient products, thus joining similar efforts worldwide to halt the dangerous trend of global warming. Learn more about CCAN at www.chesapeakeclimate.org.

Patuxent Riverkeeper’s goals are to conserve, protect, and replenish Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway. Our tools include strategic advocacy, restoration and education to achieve long term sustainability for the ecosystem of the Patuxent River Basin and the people who rely on its future.

CONTACT:

Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3256 or aaaron@hastingsgroup.com

Eric Schaeffer, Environmental Integrity Project, (202) 263-4440

Adam Kron, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-3224

Craig Segall, Sierra Club, (202) 548-4597

Diana Dascalu-Joffe, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, (703) 772-2472

Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper, (301) 249-8200 Ext. 7

TO RESTORE THE BAY

FOR RELEASE: 12:00 noon, December 30, 2009

A consortium of senior Chesapeake Bay scientists, policy makers, and Bay advocates meeting in Annapolis called for an end to the politics of postponement and urged the Obama Administration and the Bay states to adopt 24 bold new initiatives to restore the Chesapeake Bay. The group cited the failure of the 26 year old voluntary, collaborative approach under the EPA Bay Program and the repeated failure of the states and federal government to meet deadlines for pollution reduction goals, including the recent postponement until 2025 of Bay clean-up goals set in 2000 for 2010.

This remarkable group of 38 Bay leaders from Maryland and Virginia unanimously agreed on the bold—even radical—steps that must be taken to stop the continued degradation of the Bay (see attached statement). The Bay leaders found that the draft Bay restoration strategy under the President’s Bay Executive Order does not add sufficient new tools, regulations, penalties, and enforcement strategies to improve water quality in the Chesapeake, especially for nonpoint sources of Bay-choking nutrients and sediment from the major source of Bay pollution, agriculture, and from abusive land development. The Bay leaders urged the federal agencies and states to not allow the agribusiness and development industry opponents to derail efforts to better regulate these major sources of Bay pollution, declaring that “aggressive actions in nutrient and sediment loading from agriculture and development are critical to restoring the Bay. Without these the Bay is doomed.” Serious concerns were noted over what we already see as a recent retrenchment by EPA from some of the proposed enhanced regulatory measures under the draft plan in the areas of nutrient loading from CAFOs and nutrient and sediment loading from new and existing development.

The signatories have called for monitoring and mandatory enforceable measures to reduce farm manure and fertilizers from polluting the Bay with nutrients. These measures include requirements for whole farm water quality plans for all agricultural lands including the next generation of nutrient management, with clear targets, an implementation schedule, and enforcement. A significant expansion of the CAFO designation to include nearly all AFOs (Animal Feeding Operations) is called for as is EPA subjecting all agricultural lands receiving manure to Clean Water Act permits with enforcement assured. All land disposal of animal manure should be subject to the same regulation as Maryland’s requirements for the land disposal of human sludge from advanced wastewater treatment facilities, including requiring manure to be amended into soils within 24 hours of application. Cover crops should be required on all agricultural lands on which manure is applied.

While finding that reducing agricultural nutrients and sediment loadings may be the immediate challenge, offsetting the effects of population growth and development by 100% is essential to maintaining any progress made by other sectors. Better growth control measures are essential and the EPA should require completely offsetting growth related loads elsewhere with a new requirement added for no net increases in stormwater discharge rate, volume, and pollutants for all new development. The Bay leaders also urged the EPA to implement a retrofit requirement for existing developed areas and that a no net loss of forest coverage in the Bay watershed be mandated with expanded forested buffer coverage for at least 85% of all the shores of the Bay and its tributaries.

Dr. William Dennison, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Cambridge declared: “The current Bay Program and restoration efforts have been insufficient and are failing to achieve water quality to assure healthy populations of oysters, clams, and finfish. We must act quickly to transition from the voluntary collaborative approach that has failed to a comprehensive regulatory program that addresses the prime sources of nutrient and sediment pollution, especially from farm and development pollution, or watch the Bay die a death of 1,000 cuts. Drastic change is called for.”

The Bay leaders recommended that all wastewater treatment plants should be required to meet stringent nutrient discharge limits of no more than 3.0 mg/l nitrogen and 0.3 mg/l phosphorus. A requirement for all new and upgraded septic systems to utilize the best available technology for nitrogen removal was supported as was a call for better federal controls on air emissions.

Many of the signatories who have developed and signed onto the statements include officials who were instrumental in beginning the formal Bay restoration program in December 1983, including former Governor Harry Hughes, aptly called the father of the Bay restoration efforts. Governor Hughes said “Like most people concerned over the Chesapeake Bay’s decline, I have been very disappointed with the lack of progress in restoring the Bay. We must take the bold new initiatives outlined in our statements and act now or see the Bay’s sad decline continue. We have a great opportunity with the Obama Administration’s focus on the Bay through the Executive Order.”

Other signatories instrumental in the development and adoption of the 1983 Bay Initiatives include Secretaries of Natural Resources for Virginia and Maryland, Tayloe Murphy and Torrey Brown, respectively, former head of the Maryland environmental agency Bill Eichbaum, and former state Senators Bernie Fowler and Gerald Winegrad. Former Governor Glendening, U.S. Senator Tydings, Congressman Gilchrest, and current Maryland State Senators and environmental leaders Brian Frosh and Paul Pinsky also signed the statements as have note Bay author and professor Tom Horton. Senior scientists who were instrumental in developing the 24 critical steps to saving the Bay include leading Maryland and Virginia Bay researchers with more than 200 years of combined Bay research.

Leading Bay advocacy groups have joined in and helped develop and support the call for bold new actions, including the Riverkeepers, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Maryland League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation Bay Office, and Environment MD, VA, and America.

Former State Senator Gerald Winegrad said “The federal government declared the blue crab fishery a disaster but this disaster declaration could equally apply to Bay oysters, shad, eels, soft clams, and sturgeon. We have so poisoned our waters that reports abound of serious infections in humans who come in contact with Bay waters, fish kills are common, rockfish are contaminated with mercury, catfish have been found to have cancerous lesions, male bass from the Potomac are turning up with female egg sacs, and swimmers are advised to avoid the Bay and its tributaries after heavy rains. If we had thought of a doomsday scenario for the Bay when we began restoration efforts in 1983, the current state of the Bay would be it. Sadly, it has become a nightmarish reality. We need to act boldly and decisively now or the Bay will die ecologically.”

The specific measures in the statement have been submitted as formal comments to key members of the Obama Administration who are responsible for developing and implementing a Bay restoration strategy due on May 12, 2010 under the President’s Bay Executive Order. State officials also are being challenged to adopt the measures. The group also urged Congressional leaders to enact a strengthened version of the Cardin/Cummings legislation, the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009 (S 1816/ HR 3852).

Tayloe Murphy, Virginia’s former Secretary of Natural Resources, stated: “As a Virginian who deeply cares about the Bay, I am distraught at the failure of the current Bay program to produce the agreed upon improvements to water quality and restore a dying Bay. We must act now and implement strong measures to control the main source of Bay pollution–farm fertilizers, manure, and sediment–as well as control the increasing pollutants from development. We simply cannot afford any more postponements of the necessary actions detailed in our joint statement. We are squandering our natural heritage and the measures detailed in our statements are critical to turn this around.”

Download the 24 planks here Twenty Four Planks (2)