The River Current || May 22, 2008 || Issue 67

The twice monthly e-newsletter of the Charles River Watershed Association
...bringing our backyard river to your door...

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In this issue:

1. Action Alert: Public Lands Preservation Act
2. Action Alert: DCR stormwater program budget
3. Charles River swim
4. Herring run

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1) Action Alert #1: Public Lands Preservation Act needs your help to pass!

The Public Lands Preservation Act (PLPA, S. 2388) is important for protection of public lands in Massachusetts and is priority legislation for CRWA. We need an avalanche of letters, calls, and emails to representatives in order to pass the PLPA, since the bill is currently stuck in House Ways and Means, and it is going to stay there unless we take action!

Please contact your representative to ask that he or she urge Chairman Robert A. DeLeo of the House Committee on Ways and Means to report S. 2388 out favorably as soon as possible. Ask your rep to actually write or speak to Chairman DeLeo, as it’s not enough to just "support" the bill or be willing to vote for it. 

For more information, sample letters, or to find your representative, visit CRWA’s website at http://www.crwa.org/alert/2008/plpa.html

2) Action Alert #2: More funding for DCR stormwater program budget

Call your legislators today to tell them you support better funding for Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) stormwater program!  The funding will help DCR take measures to clean runoff, reduce flooding problems, and filter out pollutants from the state’s parkways, instead of allowing polluted rainwater to go directly into rivers and streams.

The Massachusetts House and Senate have each passed budgets for 2009; a conference committee must now “consolidate” the two budgets, resolving differences between them.  Call your legislators (to go www.wheredoivotema.com to find your legislators) and tell them you support the House’s budget for DCR’s stormwater cleanup program (they have proposed $1,141,617), not the Senate’s version (they proposed $944,643). Thanks for taking a moment to do your part to help water quality in the Charles!

3) 2008 Charles River Swim

Celebrate a cleaner Charles!  Come cheer on the racers – or volunteer to help in a kayak – at the Charles River Swim, a one mile competitive swim on June 15.  The race begins and ends at the River Dock near the Arthur Fiedler statue on the Esplanade.  CRWA’s four decades of research and advocacy to clean up the river have helped make this event possible, and CRWA staff are monitoring water quality conditions prior to the race to ensure that the water quality meets swimming standards.  Details on the swim are available at www.charlesriverswimmingclub.org.

4) The herring are running! 

View of video of blueback herring and alewife at Watertown Dam on CRWA’s home page at www.charlesriver.org; visit our YouTube account at http://youtube.com/CRWA2 for more videos!