If you are a dedicated advocate like myself, you are usually grounded in talking points, in the next action, in an upcoming hearing or town hall meeting. But once in a while, I take time to stop and reflect about the larger context of my work. One of these moments happened recently when Katie Valentine of Climate Progress - my all-time favorite blog - called to talk with me. She wanted to discuss the lawsuit brought against the Chesapeake Bay TMDL or Clean Water Blue Print by 21 states located far from Maryland. "Oh," I said, "we are not working on this process."
"I have some general questions," she responded. So I agreed to speak with Katie about the concerns of farmers in Maryland and told her what I knew about their perspectives on the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Plan.
The issues surrounding farming and water pollution are vast and complex, as complex as the farming community itself. But seen from a larger scale, the battle at hand is really about the extent to which the federal government is able to regulate both the states and different pollution sectors within the states to protect our waterways and other natural resources. This battle is happening against the backdrop of increasing water pollution, growing climate pollution, deforestation, and destruction of the natural systems that we depend on.
Personally, I can't imagine how we will ever conserve and manage what is left of nature without strong regulations and the federal government playing a much larger role than it does now in holding all polluters accountable, especially the big ones. Agricultural pollution is up there as the biggest pollution source to the Chesapeake Bay. If we can't reduce argicultural pollution, water quality in the Chesapeake Bay will continue to remain poor. Please read Katie Valentine's blog post to learn more about these issues:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/16/3363281/states-block-chesapeake-cleanup/
To become involved in reducing water pollution from all pollution sources to the Chesapeake Bay, and our rivers and streams, please call me at 301-277-7111 or e-mail me at claudia.friedetzky@sierraclub.org.