Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
Maintenance: It’s Not Just for Your Car
Stacey Detwiler, Associate, Conservation & Government Relations
April 11, 2013 | Climate Change, Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Pollution
Many of us are familiar with maintenance in some form. Whether it’s getting an oil change for the car or unclogging the sink, if we don’t get around to it, we usually end up paying in the long run.
Maintenance for infrastructure that manages stormwater runoff works in much the same manner, albeit at a larger scale. Without consistent maintenance, these practices can fail forcing expensive repairs and posing significant health and safety risks.
Miles Per Gallon for Raindrops - What is a Performance Based Standard for Managing Stormwater?
Gary Belan, Director, Clean Water Program
April 5, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Pollution
American Rivers has been a leader on clean water issues for some time now, and nowhere is this more evident than in our work on stormwater. In particular, we have been working to ensure that the USEPA comes out with a balanced and effective approach to managing stormwater in its anticipated new stormwater rule.
Read more »A Bleak Assessment for Rivers
Amy Trice, Lapham Conservation Fellow
March 28, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Water Pollution
Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency released a study which assesses the health of rivers and streams across the country. While the good news is that the National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) provides important data to monitor river health; the bad news is that more than half of our streams and rivers remain in poor condition.
Read more »Sewage Right To Know - What's In Your Water?
Katherine Baer, Senior Director, Clean Water and Water Supply Programs
March 15, 2013 | Water Pollution, Stormwater & Sewage, Climate Change
When there’s a sewage overflow or spill into your local creek or swimming hole, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Well, in some places where there’s good monitoring and notification people do get this information about sewage overflows and can make their own choices about where and when to swim and play in their water.
Read more »An “Impaired” Susquehanna can become a Healthier River
Liz G. Deardorff, Director, Clean Water Program Pennsylvania
February 28, 2013 | Water Pollution
American Rivers and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have submitted a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region III (EPA) regional administrator, Shawn Garvin requesting amendment to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) list of impaired waterways. Notably lacking from the list DEP recently submitted to EPA is the Lower Susquehanna River.
Read more »More Clean Water In The Courts – The Accotink Creek Decision
Katherine Baer, Senior Director, Clean Water and Water Supply Programs
February 8, 2013 | Urban Rivers, Stormwater & Sewage, Water Pollution
Recently we described the results of the Supreme Court’s decision in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which was a narrow one. Another Clean Water Act case, Virginia Department of Transportation vs. Environmental Protection Agency addresses the cleanup of Accotink Creek, a tributary to the Potomac River in Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax and the Town of Vienna, Virginia. Decided by the Eastern District of Virginia in favor of the state DOT (and local governments), the case also has a limited holding.
Read more »Salmon, stormwater and streets – a toxic mix
Katherine Baer, Senior Director, Clean Water and Water Supply Programs
February 6, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Pollution
Have you ever seen one of those fish drawings near the street on a storm drain – a stencil saying something like, “don’t dump, drains to stream.” And even though you might think of salmon as all living in pristine, beautiful rivers, it turns out that polluted stormwater runoff from developed areas and roads and highways threatens these fish too.
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