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For Immediate Release
July, 09 2013, 01:38pm EDT
Contact:
Citizens to EPA: Clean Up Our Water!
Hundreds attend limited public hearing on power plant water pollution
WASHINGTON
On April 22, after more than 30 years of delay, the EPA proposed a new rule under the federal Clean Water Act that contains a variety of options for cleaning up toxic water pollution from coal-fired power plants. Power plants are some of the biggest sources of water pollution in the country, having already poisoned hundreds of lakes, rivers, bays, streams and aquifers. These are waters from which many nearby communities drink, swim and fish.
Today, at its Washington, D.C. headquarters, the EPA is holding the first and only public hearing on the proposed rule. But the EPA has limited the scope and length of the public hearing, much to the disappointment of the hundreds of citizens who want to tell their stories of poisoned waters.
The following statement is from Alliance for the Great Lakes (IL), Appalachian Voices, Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper (FL), Chesapeake Climate Action Network (MD), Clean Water for North Carolina (NC), Comite Dialogo Ambiental (PR), Earthjustice, Environmental Integrity Project, French Broad Riverkeeper (NC), Greenpeace, Haw Riverkeeper (NC), Labadie Environmental Organization (MO), Little Blue Regional Action Group (PA), Milwaukee Riverkeeper (WI), National Hispanic Medical Association, National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, Patuxent Riverkeeper (MD), Potomac Riverkeeper (DC), Prairie Rivers Network (IL), Sierra Club, Watauga Riverkeeper (NC), Waterkeeper Alliance, and Western North Carolina Alliance (NC):
"It is time for the EPA to end the power industries' long history of destroying our lakes, rivers, and streams with toxic pollution. We are going to do all we can to ensure comprehensive rules are adopted that will require power plants to clean up all of their toxic wastewater pollution, not just some of it.
"By far the best option proposed by the EPA is for power plants to install zero liquid discharge technology and convert to safer coal ash handling systems that will eliminate discharges of the most contaminated wastewaters entirely. We hope the EPA will adopt the strongest protections for our waters from this pollution.
"The EPA has called this hearing only on part of the proposed rule, so-called 'pretreatment' standards for coal waste going to public water treatment facilities. The agency needs to listen more broadly. It is important that the EPA hear from the public on the rule as a whole, because so many of us are affected by toxic water pollution from power plants in our rivers, lakes and streams."
Contact:
Jared Saylor, Earthjustice, (202) 745-5213
Sandra Diaz, Appalachian Voices, (828) 262-1500
Diana Dascalu-Joffe, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, (240) 396-1984
Katie Hicks, Clean Water for North Carolina, (828) 251-1291
Ruth Santiago, Comite Dialogo Ambiental, (787) 312-2223
Lyman C. Welch, Alliance for the Great Lakes, (312) 445-9739
Jennifer Duggan, Environmental Integrity Project, (802) 225-6774
Robert Gardner, Greenpeace, (540) 421-7558
Patricia Schuba, Labadie Environmental Organization, (636) 402-8460
Elena Rios, National Hispanic Medical Association, (202) 628-5895
Mark Magana, National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, (202) 230-2070
Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper, (240) 393-1547
Traci Barkley, Prairie Rivers Network, (217) 344-2371
Eitan Bencuya, Sierra Club (202) 495-3047
Brittany Kraft, Waterkeeper Alliance, (678) 761-6584
Anna Jane Joyner, Western North Carolina Alliance, (828) 258-8737
LATEST NEWS
Ad Campaign Targets Vulnerable Republican Who Broke Promise Not to Cut Medicaid
Northeastern Pennsylvania Congressman Rob Bresnahan is one of many Republicans in swing states who are taking heat after ripping away Medicaid coverage from their constituents.
Jul 08, 2025
A new ad campaign is targeting a vulnerable first-term Republican congressman in a Northeastern Pennsylvania swing district after he broke his promise not to vote for Medicaid cuts.
Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. (R-Pa.) joined the rest of his party last week to vote for the Republican budget megabill, which cut over $1 trillion from the safety net program over the next decade.
As editorial board of The Times-Tribune in Scranton wrote, Bresnahan's vote went against his "repeated promises" to protect safety net programs, including a pledge he made in February that "if a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it."
Bresnahan did ultimately vote for the bill, which may now result in nearly a half-million of his "neighbors" in the state of Pennsylvania losing coverage, according to a study published last week by the Joint Congressional Economic Committee. More than 200,000 people in Bresnahan's district—over a quarter—are Medicaid recipients.
In a new ad released Monday by the progressive group Unrig Our Economy, one of those neighbors comes back to haunt him.
"I sat in a meeting with Congressman Bresnahan," says a Scranton woman named Krysten. "We discussed some issues that I deal with myself."
The ad notes that Krysten had an ankle injury that required "six surgeries," "rehabilitation," an "ankle brace," and "medication."
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Bresnahan won his seat by just 1.6 points in 2024, knocking out Democratic incumbent Rep. Matt Cartwright. The Cook Political Report lists Bresnahan as one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the country in the 2026 midterms.
"Congressman Bresnahan looked his own constituents in the eyes and promised to protect Medicaid, then turned around and voted to gut it so billionaires could get another tax break," said Kobie Christian, a spokesperson for Unrig Our Economy. "People like Krysten deserve healthcare and honesty, not cruel cuts and empty promises. Congressman Bresnahan should start fighting for his constituents, not the ultrarich."
Other Democratic-aligned groups are joining in the full-court press, hoping Bresnahan's betrayal of Medicaid recipients would be enough to sink his reelection chances.
In a post on X Tuesday, the House Majority PAC, which seeks to win the House majority back for Democrats, called out Bresnahan for selling his stock in the Centene Corporation, the largest Medicaid provider in the U.S., on May 15, just one week before the first version of the Republican bill passed the House. The value of the stock would tank throughout the month of June as cuts to Medicaid became increasingly inevitable.
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Bresnahan is one of many Republicans who may be in danger after voting to strip Medicaid from their constituents.
According to Newsweek, 64 GOP lawmakers represent districts where the Medicaid enrollment rate is higher than the national average. In addition to Bresnahan, four others—Nick Begich (R-Alaska), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), and Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) won their districts by five points or less and are particularly vulnerable.
The GOP bill is historically unpopular, with polls from Quinnipiac University, The Washington Post, Pew Research, and Fox News all showing roughly 2-to-1 opposition. Meanwhile, just 10% of Americans say they support cuts to Medicaid spending compared to nearly half who say the government should spend more money on the program, according to Quinnipiac.
According to reporting from Politico Sunday, Republicans are now in panic mode about how this vote could affect their chances.
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Mechanic and former labor union leader Dan Osborn, who last year ran for the United States Senate as an independent in deep-red Nebraska and came within 63,000 votes of defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, is getting back into the ring.
Osborn announced on Tuesday that he will be running for Senate again next year against Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), whom he lampooned in his opening campaign video as "Wall Street Pete."
🚨MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT🚨
Ok. You've all convinced me. I'm in.
I'm running for Senate against billionaire Pete Ricketts In Nebraska.
This race represents the foundational battle taking place in America right now:
The Billionaire Class vs. The Working Class
Who's with me? pic.twitter.com/QQmcq4H3bl
— Dan Osborn (@osbornforne) July 8, 2025
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"They were sold a bill of goods that if you work hard in this country, your government is going to be there, to have a level playing field for you to get ahead," Osborn explained to Goldberg. "But now we're seeing tax cuts for the billionaires at the expense of workers, people that are struggling to get by."
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"If you're truly a party for the working class, your candidates are going to be mostly working-class," he told the Times. "I like to call it paycheck populism, because I get a paycheck once a week. I know how much money comes in. I know much money goes out. And I know how much harder it is to live now versus eight years ago."
In his interview with the paper, Osborn once again made sure to bring up the just-passed GOP budget bill.
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Bondi began to respond to the question but Trump quickly interrupted.
"Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" the president demanded to know. "This guy's been talked about for years! We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable... I mean, I can't believe that you're asking a question about Epstein at a time like this where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration."
Trump: Are you still talking about Epstein?!? This guy has been talked about for years. Are people still talking about this creep? I can’t believe you’re asking a question about Epstein… pic.twitter.com/cYRuR1XHwr
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Epstein, whose 2019 death while in prison was ruled a suicide, cultivated relationships with several high-profile public figures, including former President Bill Clinton, former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, the Duke of York Prince Andrew, and Trump himself.
It had long been rumored that Epstein had a "client" list of powerful men to whom he had trafficked underaged girls and that he'd kept videos of their encounters to be used as blackmail material. However, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this week asserted that there was never an Epstein client list, that there was "no credible evidence... that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals," and that there was no evidence that "could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties."
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