CLF has again shown cleaner, safer and lower cost transportation solutions are available.  With crumbling bridges and roads, budget-breaking deficits and increasing pollution, it is time to stop the madness.  Let’s not continue to push 1950s-era highway projects in the 21st century.  We can fix the roads we have, improve public transporation and rail and make safer routes for kids and others to get around.

Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided to uphold the comprehensive permit for Cape Wind’s transmission lines issued by the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB)–a welcome and much-anticipated milestone for the nation’s first major offshore wind energy project. CLF has been actively involved in moving the ball forward on Cape Wind throughout its nine-year review and permitting process, and we’re thrilled that Cape Wind will finally have an opportunity to to move forward and provide Massachusetts with clean, renewable power.

Here’s what CLF Staff Attorney Shanna Cleveland had to say on the subject:

“The Court thoroughly reviewed the extensive record in this case and correctly concluded that the state siting board rigorously scrutinized the project and fulfilled its obligation to safeguard the public trust. Cape Wind will provide electricity without producing any harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and its clean energy benefits are expected to significantly outweigh its impacts. The Court’s affirmation of Cape Wind’s comprehensive state permit is a significant step on the path toward a clean energy future for New England and the nation.”

Check out clf.org for the full press statement>>

Not a big deal but an important reminder of all the many little , medium, large and very large things we will need to do to fight global warming – and how the things we can do to aid that cause can also save us a bit of money at the same time.

What is clear is that there are continuing problems at the Vermont Yankee nuclear facility.

CLF has called for the plant to be shut down now.  Leaks since January are continuing to pollute our environment and harm our economy.

CLF recently submitted detailed legal analysis showing that Vermont regulators have the authority and the obligation to take action in response to the leaks. 

Let’s STOP the “unusual events.”  Enough is enough.

Photo courtesy of Korrin Petersen, Coalition for Buzzard's Bay

Most people, whether they’re New Englanders or not, associate Cape Cod with pristine beaches, sparkling water, diverse plant and marine life. They don’t normally think of excessive algae blooms and scores of dead fish lining the shores of what many New Englanders consider their second home. Unfortunately, the Cape is rapidly becoming more of the latter (see photo above) due to untreated wastewater from septic systems flowing into Cape Cod’s waterways. The problem gets worse with each passing summer season.

Today, CLF and The Coalition for Buzzards Bay (CBB) took legal action to expedite the cleanup of the Cape’s legendary waterways by holding federal and county authorities accountable for reducing nitrogen pollution. In particular, the organizations called the EPA to the table to fulfill its legal obligations under the Clean Water Act to permit and regulate the discharge of nitrogen into the Cape’s waters.

Here’s what CLF President John Kassel had to say on the issue:

“The destruction of Cape Cod’s bays and estuaries must not be allowed to continue unchecked. Decades of foot-dragging are now threatening the very lifeblood of the Cape. We know the culprit and we know the solution. We need the Obama administration to prioritize clean-up of this treasured resource as it has with the Chesapeake Bay and for the EPA to step up to the plate and fulfill its legal obligation to control nitrogen pollution.”

Learn More:

Read the full news release at CLF.org>>
Learn more about nitrogen pollution on the Cape>>
Read the recent NY Times article on the issue>>

What you may not have heard is that fewer than 20 people (according to the Burlington Free Press) have submitted comments voicing their opinion. No, that’s not a typo. Fewer than 20 people have spoken up about the Circ. We need to change that, and we need to change it now.

Here’s what we need you to do:

1. Submit a comment online against the proposed highway before the Friday, August 27 deadline.
2. Share this blog post via Twitter and Facebook with your family, friends and neighbors, asking them to submit a comment.

Not sure what to say in your comment to decisionmakers? Feel free to copy and paste the sample comment below:

The proposed Circ project is a bad idea for Vermont. The Circ will contribute harmful greenhouse gases, destroy farmlands and fragile wetlands, limit transportation choices, increase congestion—all while providing little benefit in travel time saved. Fixing existing roads and providing alternatives to driving—like freight rail, buses, carpooling and bike lanes—is cleaner, cheaper and more effective than the proposed Circ Highway project.

Comments are due by August 27—that’s this Friday! So please don’t wait. Our decisionmakers are listening, and we need as many people to speak up as possible. After you take action, please share this blog post far and wide to help get the word out.

Thank you for helping us put the breaks on the Circ project: Vermont deserves better!

Click the “like” button below to share this post on Facebook.

It’s the height of vacation season out on Cape Cod, the age-old summer refuge of New Englanders and non-New Englanders alike. But nothing ruins a vacation week faster than heading down to the beach only to be accosted by “no swimming” signs and huge clumps of seaweed and algae floating in the very waters that used to invite fun in the sun.

This is the problem detailed in yesterday’s New York Times article  “Cape Cod Waters in Pollution Crisis.” CLF has been working  to take steps to correct the problem for over a year and a half. This morning, NYTimes.com reported that the article is the third-most e-mailed today–signaling to CLF advocates that we’re working on an issue that a whole lot of people care a whole lot about.

The article also quotes CLF’s own Chris Kilian, director of our Clean Water and Healthy Forests program.

“A lawsuit would be intended to bring all of the relevant decision makers and authorities who should be part of the solution to the table,” Kilian told the Times reporter.

These unwanted green monsters are signs of a major pollution problem in Cape Cod’s legendary bays and waterways. The problem is caused by untreated wastewater from the septic systems, which threatens the health of local waters and the plant and marine life that live there–and the problem continues to get worse every year. Moreover, officials have known about the problem for over 30 years, and failed to do anything to stop it.

However, the effects of the pollution can be reversed by drafting stronger wastewater management plans and implementing more effective pollution removal technology–but towns have to act now. CLF is working to make that happen, before it’s too late.

Read more about CLF’s work on water pollution in Cape Cod at clf.org>>

That opening line from Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities ran through my head last week as I had two very different experiences of Lake Champlain, the 6th largest freshwater lake in the lower 48.

On Saturday, CLF participated in Burlington, Vt’s Lake Champlain Maritime Festival.  Visitors from Canada, outlying towns in Vermont, and many of the 50 states descended on the waterfront for fun in the sun along New England’s “west coast.” Festival goers had a chance to take sailing lessons and inspect old-style guide boats and other watergoing vessels from the Lake’s past.  By day, the sun shone on the broad blue Lake with its breathtaking vistas of the Adirondack Mountains in New York.  And by night great music from the likes of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals echoed across the waterfront.  Although they may not have known it, many of the festival goers also had a chance to drink water from the lake as it serves as the main public drinking water source for 250,000 people in the greater Burlington area.

The festival was exactly the kind of event that highlights the Lake as a recreational, cultural, and economic resource for Vermonters and those who come to visit.  It was a “best of times” moment for our great Lake. 

But less than two months ago, in the midst of the summer’s worst heat wave, the same waterfront exploded with foul blue-green algae blooms that turned the water a nasty shade of slimy green.  The Burlington Free Press has an depressing gallery of photos here. 

And that brings me to the “worst of times” moments from last week. 

On Tuesday, members of the St. Albans Bay Area Watershed Association invited me to come see the foul water quality that has been plaguing the Bay for most of the summer.  I drove up to St. Albans, roughly 30 miles north of Burlington, to meet with three local residents–a retiree, a high school principal, and a state police officer–who are both maddened and saddened by the plight of St. Albans Bay.

A blue-green algae scum fouls and discolors the mostly-deserted waters of St. Albans Bay near a spot that used to average 50,000 visitors a summer before algae blooms like this became a regular experience

They took me on a tour of the watershed, an area that has become dominated by industrial-scale dairy farming responsible for spreading millions of gallons of liquid manure each year onto farm fields that eventually drain into the bay.  The excess nutrients in the runoff from those fields fuel the blue-green algae that choke the life out of the Bay, depressing area businesses and property values.  Forget the image of cows grazing happily on green fields with a red barn in the background.  The cows on these farms were packed tightly into low, single-story barns that look more like warehouses. 

The group took me to the waterfront St. Albans Bay Park.  The bright-green, scummy water I saw is pictured at left.  It was a blistering hot day, but no one was using the beach or even thinking about swimming.  The ice cream parlor on the park’s edge had no customers and the convenience store looked pretty slow too.

One of my tourguides, who used to take his kids swimming there all the time in the 80s, told me that the park was once a major destination for Canadians who would drive south to bask on the Bay’s calm beaches–bringing their tourist money with them.  But annual visits to the park–once as high as 50,000 people per summer–have dropped to less than 5,000 as water quality has declined. 

Vermont cannot and will not prosper as a state if we continue to tell this tale of two lakes.  The Maritime festival highlights what a tremendous asset a clean lake is and can be.  Yet one wonders what would have happened if the festival was scheduled for earlier in the summer when the water near Burlington looked much as the water in St. Albans did last week.  The experience of depressed property values and economic decline in St. Albans Bay highlights what we stand to lose if we don’t stem the pollution flowing to all sections of the Lake.  We cannot tolerate a situation where you have to check a Department of Health web site to see the status of blue-green algae blooms in the part of the Lake you are planning on visiting.

Whether the problem is pollution from poorly-run megafarms, fouled runoff from big-box parking lots, or inadequately treated sewage, CLF’s Lake Champlain Lakekeeper is committed to restoring and maintaining the best of times all the time and everywhere in Lake Champlain.