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Highlights
Continuing the Fight to Protect our Environment During this Pandemic
As we practice social distancing, largely from our homes, we are constantly reminded of how important our work continues to be. Drinking water from our kitchen tap, using personal care products (without toxic chemicals), and visiting local parks to get fresh air and exercise—all demonstrate that our work to protect public health and the environment is as important as ever. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated that we suspend our direct grassroots outreach in order to protect the health of our employees and the public. This has created a financial hardship on us. CCE is a strong organization with excellent staff and we are determined to weather this storm, but we truly need your help during these difficult times. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a financial contribution today to support our work to protect clean water, fight climate change, conserve open space, and so much more.
Victory! A Green Budget for New York
CCE priorities in the final New York State budget include:
$3 Billion Environmental Bond Act: This funding will help our communities become more resilient to the challenging impacts of climate change, including increased flooding and sea level rise, while also protecting and restoring our water resources. The Bond Act will need to be approved by the voters in November.
Ban on Styrofoam food packaging and packaging peanuts: Styrofoam litters our communities and threatens public health. There is no need to continue using this antiquated product when safe and environmentally friendly alternatives are readily available.
Permanent ban on fracking: While Governor Cuomo wisely instituted a regulatory ban on fracking in 2015, this permanent ban set in law will help ensure the dangerous process of fracking for gas will not be taken up by future administrations.
$500 million for clean water infrastructure: Increased investments in drinking water and wastewater infrastructure will not only protect our drinking water and reduce dangerous sewage overflows; it will help put thousands of New Yorkers to work.
Fully funding the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) at $300 million: Since 1993, the EPF has been New York’s most important source of environmental funding, benefiting every community in the state. EPF projects protect drinking water, build community parks, save family farms, bolster recycling programs, revitalize waterfronts, and so much more.
Victory! Suffolk Legislature Votes Yes on Clean Water Plan
Nitrogen pollution from sewage and septics poses a significant threat to Long Island’s water resources. To combat this problem, Suffolk County has worked diligently to create a comprehensive Subwatersheds Wastewater Management Plan, which analyzes the sources of nitrogen pollution in 191 subwatersheds and prescribes a path for ecosystem restoration in each water body. The Suffolk County Legislature unanimously voted “yes” in March to adopt the Final Generic Environment Impact Statement (FGEIS) for the Suffolk County Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan. This vitally important vote moves the process forward and allows critical components of the plan to be considered by the Legislature in the future.
Happenings
Pushing for our Priority Bills in CT
The Connecticut legislative session is currently suspended due to COVID-19, but the fight isn’t over. We spent the first half of March pushing for our priority bills and we will continue working to ensure our CT environment is protected during this shutdown. We testified at public hearings and urged key committee member to support critical bills for 2020, including phasing out toxic PFAS in firefighting foams and food service packaging, requiring testing for PFAS in public drinking water supplies, prohibiting Styrofoam food packaging, and establishing a Climate Change and Green Jobs plan for CT. Stay tuned for more information on how you can add your voice to support these important bills.
Tackling Emerging Contaminants on Long Island
The NYS Department of Health is in the final phase of deciding drinking water standards for 3 emerging contaminants: 1,4-dioxane, PFOS and PFOA. The quicker these standards are finalized, the sooner it will be mandated that these chemicals are filtered out of our drinking water. Bethpage and Calverton residents live in communities with water wells impacted by toxic plumes, which include the aforementioned contaminants, and will be directly impacted by these new standards. In March, we joined community groups from Calverton and Bethpage in calling on NY to move forward without further delay in setting drinking water standards for these emerging contaminants. These residents—and everyone—deserve clean drinking water!
Fighting for the Great Lakes in D.C.
In early March, we joined with a team of advocates from New York and traveled down to Washington D.C. for Great Lakes Days. We met with the New York congressional offices on our Great Lakes priorities: Reauthorizing and increasing funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, increasing funding for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, stopping the invasion of Asian carp, fighting clean water rollbacks from the administration, and more.
Suffolk County: Change Out Your Septic System
While our series of community forums highlighting the importance of reducing nitrogen pollution from outdated septics and cesspools is temporarily suspended to observe social distancing recommendations, our nitrogen pollution problem is not going away. These forums are designed to help Suffolk County residents get grants to change out their old systems for new, on-site, nitrogen-reducing treatment systems and we will be picking up the series and rescheduling meetings as soon as we can. In the meantime, you can get information on the grant program or fill out an application here.