Freshwater Future Weekly: December 28, 2023
This Week: There’s Still Time to Give your Year-End Gift to Bring People One Step Closer to Having Clean and Safe Water; Year in Review: Protecting the People and the Waters of the Great Lakes; Meet One of our Fall 2023 Grantees: Superior Rivers Watershed Association; New York Passes the Lead Pipe Right to Know Act!
There’s Still Time to Give your Year-End Gift to Bring People One Step Closer to Having Clean and Safe Water
Imagine the impact you could have with a year-end gift today to bring people one step closer to having clean and safe water across the Great Lakes Region. You can ensure a brighter future and help make lasting change for our region through your financial support today at this link. No gift is too big or too small! Thank you for your generosity.
Year in Review: Protecting the People and the Waters of the Great Lakes
Freshwater Future and our partners faced many challenges and threats to the health of waters in the Great Lake region this year. Fortunately, thanks to the involvement of people like you, we also have many successes! A few highlights of this year’s successes include:
- The Canadian government committed $420 million to the Great Lakes,
- Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources denied the expansion of a National Guard Training Facility that was a threat to high quality rivers,
- Benton Harbor replaced all lead service lines, and
- The Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a mining company’s water pollution permit in a landmark decision!
We are continually awed by the power of community organizing and action. Congratulations and thank you to all of the advocates creating change for their Great Lakes communities. Read more about how our efforts and the grassroots organizations we support are making a difference in our most recent newsletter!
Every year I am amazed at how the challenges to clean, safe and affordable water change, yet I am equally amazed at how engaged residents step forward to solve those challenges. Thank you to each and every community member working so hard to protect our waters – Jill Ryan, Executive Director
Meet One of our Fall 2023 Grantees: Superior Rivers Watershed Association
In the spring and fall of each year, Freshwater Future awards project grants to grassroots organizations advocating on water issues in Great Lakes communities. One of our grantees this fall, Superior Rivers Watershed Association (Wisconsin), is providing tools for watershed protection around a pipeline reroute. By conducting volunteer water quality monitoring at the rivers along the reroute before and during construction, Superior Rivers Watershed Association is committed to advocating for the Bad River and Lake Superior watersheds. Learn more about their work on this issue and others affecting Lake Superior. You can also read about additional grantees here in the coming weeks!
New York Passes the Lead Pipe Right to Know Act!
Last week New York’s Lead Pipe Right to Know Act was signed into law. This new legislation requires all water utilities in the state to publicly share how many lead service lines are present in their distribution system and where those lines are located. Freshwater Future has worked with our partners to bring this bill to fruition.
Jill Ryan, Executive Director of Freshwater Future, said of the news, “We are pleased to see this bill make it across the finish line. The Lead Pipe Right to Know Act will provide information families need to stay safe as lead service lines are replaced.”