Mining, whether it is for coal, oil, aluminium, uranium, silver, or gold, is notoriously damaging to the environment. Often when we think of these impacts, we think of the adverse health conditions that many miners experience, or the loss of wildlife habitat due to strip mining. Unfortunately, those aren't the only negative effects of mining. Mining of resources and their subsequent refinement, often near or at the same site, pollutes tremendous amounts of water.
Read MoreCities can pollute water in a number of ways. Fertilizers and pesticides dumped on lawns have similar effects to those used in agriculture (we explored those effects in a previous blog post). Cities also dump oil and plastic into waterways and create sewage. They can also create flash flooding which can cause dangerous erosion.
Read MoreAccording to the EPA 32% of our country’s water is used for agriculture, but all of that water has to go somewhere. Some of the water is used by plants, some of it evaporates, but a large portion of it permeates through the ground or washes away as runoff. Runoff can wash away pesticides and bring them into our water, endangering animals and humans alike. It can also bring fertilizers into lakes clogging them with algae. Or worse, it can accelerate erosion and bring sediments in rivers and creeks.
Read MoreClimate change is already causing changes now, right here in the state of Indiana. This year’s spring was one of the five wettest in the state’s history, and wet springs and intense rainfall events will only get more common in the future. Indiana summers will come to resemble either present-day Missouri or Texas by late century, and our winters will be like those now seen in the Mid-Atlantic.
Read MoreOn August 25, Hoosiers will gather in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Monroe County to celebrate Water Quality Day. As part of National Water Quality Month, Water Quality Day is a day to bring the focus closer to home. The month is dedicated to celebrating Indiana’s abundant waterways. In Indiana, freshwater supports a billion-dollar resource economy, making it vital to Hoosiers’ quality of life.
Read MoreHappy World Water Day, fellow conservationists! Over at CLC, we're taking time out of our day to reflect on the importance of the 1% of fresh water that is accessible to us. While many people are focusing on the need to develop water infrastructure in economically developing countries (which is great!), we want to remind our followers that small changes in our lifestyles can have a big impact on curbing water waste! With issues arising throughout the country, like lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, and over 7,000 miles of Indiana rivers and streams being impaired by untreated or improperly treated waste water, it has never been more important to make those changes now. Here's a list of CLC tested and approved steps to reducing your water footprint.
Read MoreThis month we're celebrating our Graduate Fellow Attorneys and their accomplishments. We hired two new Fellows this fall and are sending off our third this month.
The Graduate Fellow Attorney position at the Conservation Law Center aims to give recent graduates practice in the field. Fellows work with the center for 1-2 years and then continue to work for both public and private firms; we have former Fellows now working with Earthjustice, Beveridge & Diamond, and the Tennessee Attorney General's office.
The facts about water make you think: human beings are about 70% water. And so is our home; the earth’s surface is about 70% water.
Only air is as important to us as water, and if there’s anything we all have in common, it is our love of water. We build cities by it, we recreate in and on it, we photograph and paint it, and we even decorate our public spaces with it.
Read MoreAugust is Water Quality Month (#WQM17) and Conservation Law Center (CLC) is sponsoring a social media campaign to raise awareness of the importance of water quality and availability in Indiana. Here is our Letter to the Editor from CLC Director Bill Weeks and Indiana University's Dr. Jeffrey White about the #WQM17 initiative.
Read MoreCarol Kugler, a reporter for The Herald-Times in Bloomington, IN, attended CLC's recent presentation at Green Drinks Bloomington.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, March 22 at 6 pm in honor of World Water Day, Bill Weeks, Director of the Conservation Law Center, and Lily Bonwich, Director of Development of the Conservation Law Center will present a talk entitled "Water and Quality of Life in Indiana."
Read MoreThe Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice and Conservation Law Center, has been granted intervention in a trial court proceeding in which the right to burn hazardous waste near homes and schools is being disputed.
Read MoreFor a good portion of the year, CLC has been representing Friends of the White River in a Tree Clearing Settlement Agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to ensure that the proposed tree clearing on the Indianapolis banks of the White River represents the community as well as the safety concerns it addresses.
Read MorePeter Murrey and the CLC recently submitted comments on behalf of the Hoosier Environmental Council encouraging stricter oversight of bankrupt coal companies. We urged the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to develop regulations requiring insolvent and nearly insolvent corporations to post bonds covering clean-up costs, instead of merely making promises they may never fulfill.
Read MoreDirector Bill Weeks spoke at Friends of the White River annual meeting this February. CLC has been assisting FOTWR in negotiations with the DNR about tree removal on the White River levee.
At the event, President Dan Valleskey presented the organization's annual award to CLC. The hand-made carved paddle represents FOTWR's gratitude for CLC's legal council.
Read MoreOn October 26, the CLC submitted comments on the Office of Surface Mining’s proposed Stream Protection Rule on behalf of the Hoosier Environmental Council. The proposed rule updates surface coal mining regulations in light of new information on coal mining’s effects on ecosystems and the difficulty of replacing healthy streams impacted by mining. The proposed rule would allow companies to mine through streams if avoiding the streams is not practicable and the applicant demonstrates that she can replace the form and function of the impacted stream. However, the rule allows states with primary authority over surface coal mining to develop their own standards to measure stream function.
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