Sierra Club Co-Sponsors 'Water is Life' Forum with Tribal Partners

The Sierra Club and the Navajo grassroots group Black Mesa United co-sponsored a "Water is Life" forum in Flagstaff, Arizona, in mid-December. More than 30 residents of Black Mesa attended the forum, which focused on pollution from Peabody Energy's Kayenta and Black Mesa coal mines to the water supply for the Forest Lake Navajo.

"Forest Lake is the closest Navajo Chapter to the Kayenta and Black Mesa mines," says Sierra Club organizer Andy Bessler, below left, who helped put together the forum. "Over 80 families live within Peabody's leasehold, where regular blasting pollutes the air, toxic water pollutes springs and washes, and groundwater pumping depletes the local aquifer."

Black Mesa residents had requested an update on what the Sierra Club and other groups are doing in response to Peabody's request for a mine permit renewal on Black Mesa, as well as expected EPA action to clean up the Navajo Generating Station, below right, near Page, Arizona.

Thanks to the work of the Sierra Club, allied groups, and tribal partners, the Black Mesa Mine is currently idle. But the Kayenta Mine, below, continues to send millions of tons of coal to the Navajo Generating Station via an extensive train and conveyer belt system.

Photo courtesy of Doc Searls

Fern Bernally, a board member of Black Mesa United, welcomed everyone to the forum, and Black Mesa resident Maria Gladue translated from English to Navajo throughout the day for the many elders present who spoke only Navajo. That's Gladue, below, talking about the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign's recent public service ad highlighting the adverse impacts of coal power on public health.

Solar Project Helps Veterans Gain Green Job Skills

Three Bay Area veterans committed to building sustainable communities and helping other vets make the transition to civilian jobs raised more than $7,000 to help sponsor a two-day, hands-on training for local veterans to install a solar electric system on the home of a low-income family in San Francisco's Bayview district.

Among them was Sierra Club staffer and US Naval Academy graduate Alicia Washkevich (above at left). Working with former Marine Ian Thomson (second from right) and fellow Navy vet Brian Wiechowski, the three raised money through individual contributions and donations from the Sierra Club and Sungevity, a residential solar company.

The two-day training, timed to coincide with Veteran's Day, was organized by GRID Alternatives, a solar installation training company operating throughout California, and Swords to Plowshares, a community-based non-profit that helps make the transition to civilian life easier by providing counseling, job training, housing, legal assistance and other services to veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anthony Sordini, director of Veterans Green Career Pathways for Swords to Plowshares, is second from left, above.

Kentuckians Protest Utility Rate Hikes to Subsidize Coal Plants

Earlier this month, the Sierra Club and a diverse coalition of allied groups rallied outside the Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) payment center to protest the utility's proposed rate hike to pay for upgrades to three dirty, outdated coal-fired power plants.

Photo By Angela Shoemaker, courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal

LG&E recently announced that residential electric bills will go up by about 18 percent by 2016 to pay for upgrading pollution-control equipment to meet federal emissions standards at its coal-fired power plants in Kentucky, including the Mill Creek Station in Jefferson County, the Trimble County generating plant, and the KU Ghent power plant in Carroll County.

"The November 10 rally was a diverse alliance of the environmental and civil rights communities, low-income housing advocates, and Occupy Louisville activists, demanding that LG&E give us a state-of-the-art energy delivery system," says Sierra Club organizer Tom Pearce. "We should be investing in green energy and green jobs." That's Pearce at right below, being interviewed on WLOU Radio.

The Healthy Kids Outdoors Act: Bringing Families Back to Nature

After indulging in a day of turkey and football, many families will be looking for ways to get off the couch and into the outdoors this Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately, many families still lack access to safe and healthy outdoor activities.

That’s why Representative Ron Kind (WI) and Senator Mark Udall (CO) recently introduced the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act (HKOA). The objective of HKOA is to get more children connected to the outdoors and help them develop a healthy lifestyle at an early age. The bill would not only address childhood obesity by giving more kids access to outdoors activities, but this legislation would also allow children to grow a stronger connection with nature.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last thirty years, and more than a third of all children are considered overweight or obese. HKOA would provide state-level incentives to develop 5-year strategies to reconnect children and families with nature. This legislation will help get Americans active outdoors through natural play and outdoor recreation such as camping, hiking, hunting and fishing. The bill would also support public health initiatives, outdoor learning environments, service learning and other initiatives. The Departments of Public Health, Parks and Recreation, and Transportation, would be encouraged to play a role in developing the state initiatives.

Maryland Sierra Club Turns Back Threat to Endangered Watershed

The Maryland Sierra Club won a huge victory this month in its battle to save an especially high-value estuary of the Potomac River when the Maryland Department of the Environment denied wetland-destroying permits for a proposed highway across the headwaters of Mattawoman Creek. Below, Mattawoman Creek wetlands.

"The denial of this highway is a major victory for smart growth, protection of Mattawoman Creek, the Potomac, and Chesapeake Bay," says Bonnie Bick, below, conservation chair for the Club's Southern Maryland Group. "This highway would have facilitated sprawl development along faltering Mattawoman Creek, a Sierra Club priority and American Rivers' 4th-most endangered river in the nation in 2009."

Virginians Rally at EPA to Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining

Hundreds of Virginians and citizens from across the region gathered on November 16 at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., to raise their voices against a proposed mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mine that would destroy Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County, Va.

Ralliers called on the EPA and the White House to block A&G Coal's mining permit and protect the five communities surrounding Ison Rock Ridge. Sierra Club organizer Hannah Morgan (at far left, below), a Wise County resident, helped organize the demonstration with five partner groups under the banner, "Virginia Rising: A Rally to Keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing!"

Morgan was also part of a group that met with EPA Water Division and Region 3 (which includes Virginia) administrators before the rally. "They were genuinely moved by what we had to say," Morgan reports.

Longtime MTR activist and former Sierra Club organizer Adam Wells (below), a Wise County native whose ancestors have lived in the county for generations, was also at the meeting with EPA officials. "I spoke to their hearts and urged them to care about other people and the environment and act immediately," Wells says.

Partnership with AARP Helps Stop Pro-Nuclear Bill in Iowa Legislature

Earlier this year, when the Sierra Club's Iowa Chapter wanted to stop a bill in the state legislature with nuclear incentives for an investor-owned utility, they found common cause with the AARP and successfully stalled the bill in the state Senate.

"A group of environmental lobbyists was talking one day at the Capitol about what other grassroots organization would be a good ally to oppose this particular bill," says Iowa Sierra Club Director Neila Seaman, pictured at left. "One of the lobbyists at the table approached AARP's lobbyist and he agreed to participate."

Polls showed that three-quarters of Iowa were opposed to the nuclear energy bill. But AARP's involvement was due to the immediate rate increases that were included in the bill, not because the organization was opposed to nuclear power. Still, the Sierra Club had a powerful and motivated ally.

The Iowa Chapter developed a nuclear power Web page, and the Sierra Club sent out three action alerts, each of which garnered 300+ responses. AARP members consistently took action by contacting legislators. "About 4,000 AARP members called the Legislature within two or three days of each action alert," says Seaman. "There were so many telephone calls the switchboard was overwhelmed."

The Sierra Club, AARP, and other organizations turned out at public hearings to present their positions, and they doggedly persisted in contacting and lobbying legislators—particularly senators because a similar bill had easily passed the House. Below, Iowa senators listen to public comments at a committee hearing on the bill that would have provided incentives for MidAmerican Energy to begin charging ratepayers for a proposed 540-megawatt nuclear power plant.

"While the bill's sponsors envisioned quick passage in both chambers, the grassroots put so much pressure on senators that two versions of the bill stalled in Senate committees," Seaman says. "We expect we'll have to work even harder during the next session, but if we can prevent passage in 2012, then we will have succeeded."

Sierra Club and Occupy Tampa Join Forces to Defend Clean Water Regs

The Florida Sierra Club notched another clean water victory the first week of November in its fight to enact strict urban fertilizer pollution controls across Florida.

"In a joint effort between the Sierra Club and Occupy Tampa, 64 activists wearing our locally-famous neon pink stickers filled the Tampa City Council chambers," says Florida Sierra Club organizer Cris Costello, above.

That's longtime Tampa Bay Sierra Club activist Tom Krumreich at the November 3 meeting, below. Representing the Florida Consumer Action Network, Krumreich urged the Tampa City Council not to grant exemptions to the city's pollution ordinance sought by chemical fertilizer manufacturers.

When the City of Tampa adopted a strong urban fertilizer ordinance last June, Sierra Club activists and their coalition partners thought that Tampa Bay was protected from the excessive use of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer—especially during the torrential rainy season, June through September.

But no sooner was the ordinance was adopted than opponents of strict fertilizer management, Tru Green Chemlawn and Scotts Miracle-Gro, began a heavy lobbying campaign to get exemptions that would give them the right to ignore the most protective provisions of the city code.

Sierra Club activists mobilized to bring supporters of strong pollution controls to a follow-up meeting with the Tampa City Council on November 3. "And we found great allies in Occupy Tampa," says Costello.

Water Sentinels Partnership Helps Military Families Go Fishin'

Thanks to a new Sierra Club partnership, military families all over the country are enjoying rods and reels donated by Zebco, the Sierra Club Water Sentinels, the National Military Fish and Wildlife Association, and the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation's Take Me Fishing Campaign.

This fall, more than 170 young anglers participated in the Kids Fishing Derby at Lake O'Neill on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp in Southern California.

Ten-year old Nathan Wardinsky landed the largest bass of the event with a two-pound, three-ounce whopper. Trinity Flemming, age seven, claimed "Most Fish Caught" honors with ten, while Brandon Bolanos, also seven years old, brought in a nine-ounce channel catfish to win that category.

"Congratulations to all of the anglers who, without boats and three days of practice like the Bassmaster Elite tournaments, managed to catch and release 66 fish during the derby," says Water Sentinels Deputy Director Tim Guilfoile. "A great time was had by all 250 military family members and friends."

Learn more about the Sierra Club Water Sentinels and how you can get involved in a Water Sentinels project near you.

Protecting the Grand Canyon — An Organizer's Story

By Alicyn Gitlin, Sierra Club Resilient Habitats organizer.

I'm probably like you: I'm the one who will show up at public meetings and speak loudly, and I prod my friends to do the same. I will stand up and ask questions of water managers and foresters and politicians, and if their answer doesn't make sense, I will ask again.

I live in Flagstaff, Arizona—a place that's small enough to make easy connections. I see the same people at every meeting, and I rapidly realized that by being one out of the 10 or 20 people who show up to a hearing, I alone might offer 5-10% of the opinions that my decision-makers hear.

One year ago, I began organizing for Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Protection Campaign. One of my most important goals: empower more of the public to show up, speak out, and just plain participate in public processes. Easy, right? After all, everyone I know lives in northern Arizona because of our vast and stunning landscapes. Why wouldn't they want to protect them?

Persuading people that they must speak up to protect what they love is just like medicine: part science, part art, and some inherent skill; and what worked last time might utterly fail this time.