On Wednesday, September 14, 2011 Restore America's Estuaries (RAE) released a new report that details how coastal habitat restoration projects can boost jobs and help restore local economies.  According to this landmark report, Jobs & Dollars: Big Returns from Coastal Habitat Restoration, not only are coasts and estuaries essential to the economy, but coastal habitat restoration produces jobs at a faster rate than other sectors, including the oil and gas industry. 

Late at night on Friday, June 30^th, a disastrous oil spill occurred in the Yellowstone River in Montana. This was reminiscent of the 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill. Similar to last year, the conditions got worse before they improved, and clean up was tougher than expected. In Montana, Exxon Mobil, was responsible for the pipeline break that caused the 42,000 gallon oil spill. Exxon Mobil workers attempted to stop the fast spread of oil from a pipeline.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Clean Water Week 2011 here in the nation's Capitol. The sessions were tremendously engaging, the workgroup meetings productive and the side meetings with EPA and OMB extremely useful. Photo to the left is Executive Director Natalie Roy and Hackensack Riverkeeper Hugh Carola with the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. at one of the many events during CWW.  We also had a great Mississippi River Basin briefing on Capitol Hill thanks to our new Mississippi River Basin leaders and workgroups members. CWW participants also paid many visits to their congressional member offices to discuss important clean water issues, particularly the disastrous environmental federal budget cuts being proposed for fiscal year 2011. Thanks to so many folks for coming here and putting in so much time and effort. It was a busy two days to say the least! We will follow-up with more specific results from the workgroup meetings and sessions next week. All presentations will be posted over the next week or so as well. Photos of the many events that took place can be found by clicking HERE.

Thanks again for participating and making CWW 2011 a terrific event!

Very early Saturday morning, while most of the nation was sleeping, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an aggressive plan to slash the budgets of critical federal environmental programs.

Yesterday the 112th Congress convened with members of the House and Senate being sworn in for the new term. Representative John Boehner (R-OH) was elected to be the new Speaker of the House and will lead that chamber for the next two years. Since the midterm elections gave the Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives, there are a number of new faces leading committees that directly effect our ability to protect America's waters. Of particular importance to the Clean Water Community is the rise of Congressman John Mica (R-FL) to the Chairmanship of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. He is replacing former Chairman and clean water champion James Oberstar (D-MN) who lost his race this year for reelection.

This was a bad year for incumbents and for Clean Water Supporters in Congress. The midterms brought a sweeping change in Congress and resulted in throwing out some of the most committed and respected clean water champs in Congress including Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and House T & I Committee Chair James Oberstar (MN). The midterm elections also brought new conservative members to Congress who vowed to make cutting funding for environmental programs a priority. For more information check out the following links:

Last Friday, October 15th, was national Blog Action Day 2010: Water. The event, organized by change.org, prompted thousands of bloggers from around the world to come together to discuss a broad range of water issues. Issues discussed in various blogs ranged from river conservation and agricultural runoff to the water crisis in Africa and lack of access to clean water in Southeast Asia. A number of Clean Water Network groups partnered in this effort including the Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation and Clean Water Action, and American Rivers. CWN's Executive Director Natalie Roy was featured in a blog post that was part of this effort, "Five Women Water Heroes Worth Watching." US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Senator John Kerry participated in the event as well.

On May 11th, the Clean Water Network Board of Directors released a public position statement on the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill, which has already poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf, continues to grow at an alarming rate.

 The Network's statement outlines the following crucial issues:

On April 20 BP's Deepwater Horizon deep sea oil rig exploded, burned for some time and eventually sank. The rig left it its wake a ruptured well pipe that is spewing out 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of sweet crude oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. BP officials are on the record saying that it could take as long as 90 days to stop the leak, meaning that almost 18.9 million gallons could ultimately get into the water.

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On March 11, 2010, the United States EPA settled a lawsuit with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity by agreeing to use the Clean Water Act to address ocean acidification, a move that some see as opening a side door to federal curbs on greenhouse gases that scientists link to problems in the marine environment. For more information, read the E&E story below.