Local residents applaud NCES withdrawal of application for landfill expansion
After years of victorious votes, a Clean Water Act violation lawsuit, and consistent organizing to protect Bethlehem’s air, water, and people’s health, local residents celebrate North Country Environmental Services, Inc. (NCES)’s decision to withdraw its application to expand its landfill in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
13th of January 2020
Solidarity Statement in Support of the Wet’suwet’en Tribe
We the undersigned write in support of the Wet’suwet’en Tribe. We see the work to protect the land from mining/drilling/pipelines, corporate greed and settler colonial mindset as deeply linked to our own work.
8th of January 2020
Join us at Local Environmental Action 2020!
Our annual conference is back! Local Environmental Action 2020 will be on Saturday, March 7, in Boston and you won’t want to miss it. Register today!
‘Forever’ chemicals found on Maine dairies and farms
For years, many dairies, farms and neighbors across Maine have been using compost containing treated sludge from wastewater. Until this year, none of them knew that the “forever” chemicals known as PFAS were in that sludge they were spreading across their farms and gardens. Now, every single sample of compost that has been collected from farms in Maine—all 44—has tested positive for at least one PFAS chemical.
Welcome new Community Action Works Board members!
We’re excited to welcome three long-time members of the Community Action Works community to our Board of Directors: Jennie Girona, Cynthia Jennings and Cathy Kristofferson!
Activists say: Don’t waste Maine!
Across the region, communities are rising up to stop landfills and advocate for solutions for better waste management. In Maine, activists are taking a new approach to this long-standing fight. Activists such as Ed Spencer and Hillary Lister are familiar with the dangers of landfills. Ed lives in Old Town, Maine, a town that neighbors a major landfill that already expanded years ago. Ed and Hillary are working at the heart of the problem, and realized an important step the state could take to solve it.
The fight for our climate on the ground in Bow, N.H.
Bow, New Hampshire, is home to the largest coal-fired power plant in the region without an expiration date. But that plant is facing some major protest. Last fall, 67 people were arrested at the coal plant in the state’s largest civil disobedience since the 1970s. September saw an incredible surge in climate action across the globe. As more than 6 million people took to the streets, steadfast activists kept the fight alive on the ground in the Northeast.
Neighbors building community power on Massachusetts’ South Coast
Community Action Works first connected with Wendy Graça in 2015 when a massive fracked gas project was proposed on the South Coast. That proposal included two huge high-pressure gas storage tanks and a pipeline that would have gone right through Wendy’s driveway. Wendy teamed up with her neighbors and founded a multi-town group called South Coast Neighbors United to fight back. In 2017, in collaboration with communities across the state, South Coast Neighbors United had built enough power that Spectra—one of the biggest energy corporations in the country—was forced to withdraw. But South Coast Neighbors United didn’t stop there.
In Vermont and beyond, landfills are not the answer
Coventry is a beautiful town in northeastern Vermont, bordering the pristine Lake Memphremagog that stretches into Canada. It’s also home to the state’s only active landfill, and when that landfill was set to expand, neighbors raised the alarm. The landfill’s plan would likely lead to toxic waste contaminating the lake, which is the drinking water source for 185,000 Canadians.
Longmeadow and Holyoke take on fracked gas in Western Mass.
Even for activists who have long been in the fight to stop climate change, it’s still a shock when fossil fuel companies hit close to home. Shocked—that’s how Michele Marantz felt when she found out that new fracked gas projects had been proposed in her hometown of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. One of the projects, slated to be built right next to an elementary school, is called a metering station, which measures gas flow. That project would enable new pipelines and allow the expansion of fracked gas in western Massachusetts for decades to come.
