Environmental activist rally in Richmond for clean water

By Asriel Eford

With a stack of papers in one hand and coffee in the other, Emily Francis, an environmental lobbyist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, hurried out the door of her 12th street office in downtown Richmond.

“We have to show federal and state officials that we mean business,” Francis said as she headed toward the state capital building to meet with legislators.

“So this year we are taking a more aggressive approach in our advocacy for clean water.”

And turn up the heat they have.

In a rally organized by the organization, about 200 Virginians braving freezing temperatures and snow flurries, gathered on Capitol Square in Richmond on January 26th to show support for clean water initiatives.

“This location gives us the opportunity to have face time with members of the General Assembly,” said Chesapeake Bay Foundation grassroots organizer Jess Barton.

Wearing blue scarves and holding homemade signs, the crowd chanted “clean water now” as state legislators passed by.

“The water is our life and our livelihood,” said Catherine Swann, a resident of Northern Virginia who attended the rally. “The government has been too lax in there actions to help the Bay.”

Governor Kaine was the keynote speaker at the event. In his speech, he highlighted the $20 million dollars he has included in his proposed budget to support clean water programs; despite Virginia’s current $2.9 billion budget short fall.

“It was tough because I am cutting most everything out of the budget,” Kaine said.
“The $20 million may look attractive to cut, but this is just too important,” he added.

The Bay’s main problem is nutrient pollution caused by wastewater treatment plants, farming and air pollution. This affects both plant and aquatic life, not only in the Chesapeake, but also in the rivers and streams attached to the estuary.

According to Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, ten thousand miles of Virginia’s waters and streams are polluted.

But, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation wants the public to see the crisis as more than just an environmental matter.

“We don’t want Virginians to think this is just an ecological or tree hugger issue, it’s a direct economic issue,” said Chuck Epes, a spokesperson for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Virginia’s blue crab industry, which is an important source of income for watermen, has been declared a federal disaster. The industry is set to receive millions of dollars from the federal government to off-set the financial blow caused by the critically low crab supply.

As a part of what Will Baker, the president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, calls “the biggest grassroots fight for clean water the nation has ever seen”, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has also filed a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for what they are calling 25 years of failed policies.

Since 1983, the EPA and states along the Bay have signed three agreements to restore the Chesapeake Bay and clean Virginia’s polluted rivers and streams. In the most recent agreement, the EPA promised to reduce pollution enough to remove the Bay from the national dirty water list by 2010. The EPA has admitted that it will not meet that deadline

“The EPA holds the ultimate responsibility for clean water and clean air for the nation,” Epes said. “They need to set and enforce deadlines, rather than setting goals with no consequence for not reaching them,” he continued.

The claim, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C on January 5th, asks a judge to force the EPA to enforce provisions under the Clean Water Act.

According to Chesapeake Bay Watershed Blue Ribbon Panel the estimated cost for restoring the Chesapeake Bay would be around $20 billion.

But the foundation hopes the law suit will get the attention of the new “environmentally-friendly” white house administration and result in more funds to restore the Bay.

President Obama’s pick for EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, vowed during her confirmation hearing last month to visit the Bay for a first hand look at its condition.

During the hearing, Jackson also said that although the federal-state partnership has failed to reach key cleanup goals she would be happy to raise the bar even further on the federal government’s level of commitment to an extraordinary resource.