Friend, 2021 was a year of challenges for clean water, in the U.S. and around the world.Â
But thanks to our supporters, it was also a year of hard-fought victories and heartening progress toward a world in which every person’s human right to clean water is realized.
I hope you’ll take a look at what we accomplished together in 2021 — and know that these results are just the beginning.
We joined partners in February to serve Ameren Corporation — Missouri’s largest electric utility company — with a notice of intent to sue over continuing unpermitted discharges of toxic coal ash: a significant and ongoing violation of the Clean Water Act.
Our lawsuit demanding that EPA update its water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses, a leading source of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, resulted in the agency's agreement to update the standards to ensure they square with Clean Water Act requirements.
We helped lead a growing chorus of voices pushing Chubb — one of the world’s largest property and casualty insurers — to distance itself from the Trans Mountain Pipeline, dealing another setback to a carbon time bomb that lays our climate and waterways at risk and violates the rights of the Tsleil-Waututh and other First Nations in Canada.
We demanded the Biden administration reverse the previous president’s gutting of vital clean water protections — rallying supporters from every corner of the U.S. to push for prompt action and restore the Clean Water Act.
We fought for protection of the world’s waters and a hospitable planet on a global stage. At COP26, we called out the dangers of hydropower development as a false solution to climate change and demanded that it not be considered for clean energy credits, by delivering a Global Rivers for Climate Declaration to the UN, signed by 340 organizations in 78 countries.
We advocated for years against the Jordan Cove LNG fracked gas pipeline and export terminal. Just this month, the Canadian company that tried to impose it on communities across Southern Oregon canceled the project. This is a tremendous victory for local waterways and all who fought for it, including community members, environmental advocates, Tribal governments, and the state of Oregon.
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Friend, these results make me so proud, and I hope you feel the same way. Because without grassroots support from clean water warriors like you, this work couldn’t exist.Â
As we focus our energy on the challenges ahead — and they are many — I want to ensure we take a moment, pause, and consider all we’ve recently accomplished.Â
With my deepest thanks for your partnership and my warmest holiday wishes,
— Marc
Marc Yaggi
Executive Director
Your year-end gift is 100% tax-deductible — and critical to mounting our most aspirational year of clean water work yet in 2022. Your donation drives litigation, advocacy, and organizing that can cut through the noise of wealthy special interests and protect drinkable, fishable, swimmable waters for everyone.
