Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
Update On Clean Water At The Supreme Court
Katherine Baer, Senior Director, Clean Water and Water Supply Programs
January 18, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Water Pollution, Urban Rivers
Just last week, the Supreme Court issued their decision on the Clean Water Act case, Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The Court reversed and remanded the decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (which had earlier ruled in favor of NRDC). As I wrote previously, this case had the unique quality of coming before the Supreme Court with the petitioner and respondents in agreement on the threshold issue, of whether the movement of water between “improved” and “unimproved” portions of a single waterway constitutes a discharge under the CWA.
Read more »American Rivers Releases Guide To Integrate Green Infrastructure Into Stormwater Permits
Jeffrey Odefey, Director, Stormwater Program
January 17, 2013 | Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Supply
Most of us don’t think about “urban stormwater” or “polluted runoff” until we notice flooding from a recent storm covering our roads and parking lots, as shown here.
But polluted stormwater runoff from our rooftops, roads and shopping centers pollutes our streams and rivers across the country and is the leading pollution source in places like the Puget Sound.
Preserving Urban Rivers in Detroit and Across the Great Lakes
Devin Dotson, Associate Director of Communications
January 16, 2013 | Urban Rivers, Water Supply, Stormwater & Sewage
In the early 1900s, Detroit became one of the largest cities in the United States, and the Detroit River played a major role. The river is 28 miles long and serves as the international border between Canada and the United States, connecting Lake St. Clair and the Upper Great Lakes to Lake Erie, and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. Heavy traffic and the urbanization on its shores led the Detroit River to become very polluted.
Read more »My Contribution To Stormwater Issues
Katie Rousseau, Associate Director of Clean Water Program
January 14, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers
This morning I woke up to the sound of a rather heavy, but steady rain outside my window. This sound made me feel calm and peaceful. This lasted for only a minute before I thought about taking a shower and how the water I will use will contribute to an ongoing problem here in my community. The problem, which many older industrial cities in the Great Lakes are dealing with on a daily basis, is combined sewer overflows.
Read more »Continuing on the Path to Climate Resiliency
Fay Augustyn, Conservation Associate
January 11, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains, Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage
On January 1, 2013, Maryland’s Governor O’Malley signed an executive order requiring new and rebuilt state structures to consider climate change and rising sea levels in a state with the fourth-longest tidal coastline in the continental United States. This is a significant stride to keep Maryland’s coastal region resilient in the face of uncertainty.
Read more »Greener Landscapes For A Healthier Chesapeake Bay in 2013
Liz G. Deardorff, Director, Clean Water Program Pennsylvania
January 4, 2013 | Water Pollution, Urban Rivers, Stormwater & Sewage
Green infrastructure investments are one of the few spotlights in the State of the Bay report released by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) for the New Year. Promotion and support of green infrastructure solutions for managing stormwater is also identified in the Action Plan for federal resource agencies with jurisdiction in the Bay.
Read more »Much Ado About Flooding - Using Green Infrastructure to Reduce A Growing Problem
Jeffrey Odefey, Director, Stormwater Program
January 3, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains, Urban Rivers, Stormwater & Sewage
To a considerable extent, the repeated crisis of local flooding is a result of the way we’ve historically built our storm sewer systems to move rainfall away from our communities in gutters, tunnels, and ditches. However, as more land is built and paved over with rooftops and parking lots, more rainfall flows into the storm sewer system in ever greater volumes.
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