This Saturday, May 25, tens of thousands of activists across six continents, 41 countries and more than 330 cities are expected to “March Against Monsanto.”  Instigated and driven completely by grassroots activists, this global day of action hopes to demonstrate that, when many people ban together for justice and transparency, they can fight back against the powerful few. Watch this InfoWars news alert about Monsanto’s CEO feeling threatened by grassroots efforts, particularly social media.

Food & Water Watch supports the solutions that March Against Monsanto advocates for – the need for mandatory GE food labeling and further scientific research on the health and environmental impacts of GE food and repealing the Monsanto Rider that slipped into the recent budget bill (also known as the Monsanto Protection Act).

We too call for more transparency about the undue influence that Monsanto and other biotechnology seed corporations hold over our government and recently released a stunning report about how the U.S. State Department works to promote Monsanto and the biotech seed industry on the taxpayer’s dime. Link to that report as well as a corporate profile on Monsanto and a primer on GE food, below.

Food & Water Watch is proud to be supporting March Against Monsanto activities in various cities across the country – New York City; New Brunswick, New Jersey; Miami, Florida; Portland, Maine; Mystic, Connecticut; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Detroit, Michigan (check out these great pictures from a sign and costume making party earlier this week); Chicago and Springfield, Illinois; Des Moines and the Quad Cities, Iowa; Cincinnati, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle and Ramond, Washington.

Whether or not you’re planning to March Against Monsanto this weekend, arm yourself with the facts. Food & Water Watch reports, fact sheets, blogs, press releases and sharable images can all be found here: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/genetically-engineered-foods/monsanto/, and more information on GE foods here: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/genetically-engineered-foods/.

Albuquerque, NM—This week, in an eight to two vote, the Senate Conservation Committee voted to table SB 547, a bill presented by Senator William Soules that would ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in New Mexico. Despite expert testimony from Engineer Mark Sardella who presented documented spills, water and ground contamination from fracking fluid and pollution into freshwater streams over a one-year time period, the majority of the committee voted to ignore their mandate to protect the public by tabling the bill.

“We will continue to work for a ban on all levels with thousands of New Mexicans who realize that without the precious commodity of fresh water, the desert Southwest is doomed both environmentally and economically,” said Eleanor Bravo, Organizer for Food & Water Watch New Mexico, the organization that put forth the legislation.

Fracking carries the risk of water contamination, spills and casing failures in primarily agricultural areas of New Mexico. Fracking not only puts the food produced in New Mexico in danger of contamination, but also cause farmers to compete for scarce water resources with the oil and gas industry. Plus, fracking encourages dependence on a finite, unsustainable resource and delays the creation of a renewable energy infrastructure.

Although hundreds of supporters for SB 547 attended the hearing, many were denied entry into the small hearing room and only five were allowed to testify. Many of the concerned citizens who attended the hearing reside in New Mexican counties most threatened by increased fracking activities. These residents are also fighting at the local level to ban fracking from their communities.

In his closing statement, Sardella outlined a history of regulatory neglect and inaction that has significantly impacted the health of Americans to highlight the need for legislative action on fracking:

“In 1923, an engineer from Standard Oil convinced the U.S. Surgeon General that it was safe to blend a known neurotoxin with gasoline. Subsequent studies showed that 68 million American children were exposed to toxic lead levels and 325,000 American died from exposure to leaded gasoline.”

In 1970, electric utilities convinced the US Environmental Protection Agency that coal-fired power plants posed no threat to public health. Subsequent studies showed that particulate pollution from coal-fired power plants had been killing 30,000 Americans annually.

In 2005, the oil and gas industry convinced Congress that slickwater, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in horizontal wells is so safe that the process should be exempt from enforcement under the Safe Drinking Water Act.  What is unfolding in the wake of that is the most serious public threat ever perpetrated by the industry.”

The spill data presented by Engineer Mark Sardella was compiled from New Mexico Oil Conservation Division public information found here: https://wwwapps.emnrd.state.nm.us/ocd/ocdpermitting/Data/Incidents/Spills.aspx.

Contact: Eleanor Bravo, Food & Water Watch, [email protected], 505-730-8474

Albuquerque, NM— In the wake of a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report that identified ConocoPhillips’ San Juan Basin operations in Northwest New Mexico as the second-most prolific greenhouse-gas polluter in the nation among onshore oil and gas systems, Senator William Soules (D-37 Dona Ana) has introduced a bill to prohibit horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New Mexico. Senate Bill 547 would amend the Oil and Gas Act to prohibit the controversial practice best known as fracking.

“It is critical that this act take effect immediately to protect New Mexico’s natural heritage and the health of New Mexicans,” said Senator Soules. “We just don’t know enough about the impact fracking has on the long term health of our land. Once the health of our land and people is compromised, it is nearly impossible to restore. New Mexico deserves a healthy future, and fracking jeopardizes that future.”

Fracking, the horizontal drilling technique in which operators inject millions of gallons of chemically laced fluid at high pressure into rock formations to force the release of oil and gas, is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act. While the oil and gas industry has been fracking in New Mexico for decades, current techniques are more intensive and dangerous and have prompted a drilling frenzy facilitated by a lack of government oversight.

“Despite thousands of cases of water contamination near drilling sites across New Mexico, documented human health risks, and the litany of ‘fraccidents’ across the state and country growing every day, it’s hard to believe that federal and state regulators continue to turn a blind eye to the problems caused by fracking,” said Eleanor Bravo, New Mexico organizer for the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. “New Mexico’s air, water, soil and public health are not commodities to be squandered for the sole purpose of bolstering oil and gas companies’ bottom lines. This is why several New Mexico municipalities are working to pass local ban ordinances and why we need SB 547 to pass.”

This week, Food & Water Watch is gathering petitions from New Mexicans across the state in support of SB 547. The bill has been referred to three committees: Senate Conservation, Senate Corporations & Transportation and Senate Finance, and is expected to be heard this week.

Contact: Eleanor Bravo, Food & Water Watch, [email protected], 505-730-8474

By Anna Ghosh

We all deserve the right to know what’s in our food and to decide for ourselves whether or not to buy and eat it. Concerned citizens have been fighting for protections to make sure their food was healthy for centuries and the fight for transparent food labels has been a major part of that effort.  

Food & Water Watch has been fighting – and winning – campaigns to defend consumers’ right to know what’s in their food since our inception in 2005. As a result of our campaign, Starbucks committed to make its stores rBGH-free in 2007, and in 2008, we successfully fought in nine states to keep rBGH-Free labels on dairy products. In 2009 we won a campaign to get the federal school lunch program to specifically allow schools to use federal dollars to choose rBGH-Free milk for their students.

Since 2010, we’ve collected more than 150,000 signatures opposing the FDA’s approval on AquaBounty’s GE salmon, and in 2011 and 2012, along with our allies Center for Environmental Health, Center for Food Safety, Sum of Us, Corporate Accountability International and CREDO Action, we collected more than half a million signatures from consumers refusing to purchase GE sweet corn and asking Walmart not to sell the biotech corn. We’ve also been involved in collecting and submitting official comments to oppose the approval of every new GE crop that has been considered since we started in 2005. Read more…

Questionable twist leads popular legislation to be “lost” but New Mexicans remain committed to pursuing mandatory labeling

SANTA FE, NM—Despite passing the Senate Public Affairs Committee late Tuesday evening after an overwhelmingly positive discussion, Senate Bill 18 to amend the New Mexico Food Act to require the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) food and feed was “deemed lost” after a majority of the Senate, in an extremely rare action, voted on the Senate Floor not to adopt the committee’s report. Under Senate rules, this stopped the bill in its tracks and cut off any further debate or public input. 

“Even though SB 18 is dead this year, it’s clear that New Mexicans want and deserve a label that tells them whether or not their food has been genetically engineered,” said the bill’s author Senator Peter Wirth (D-25 Santa Fe). “I greatly appreciate the Public Affairs Committee’s feedback and discussion around the issue of labeling GE food, as well as Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez’s leadership on this issue. GE food labels are a right New Mexican consumers deserve and, while this defeat is a set-back, this discussion will continue at the state and national level.”

The bill passed the Public Affairs Committee five to three with Senators Craig Brandt (R-Dist 40), Ron Griggs (R-Dist 34) and Gay Kernan (R-Dist. 42) voting against. In a roll call vote on the Senate Floor Thursday morning, 23 senators voted to reject the report submitted by Public Affairs Committee Chair Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino (D-Dist 12). The senators who traditionally support peoples’ rights who voted the report down were: President Pro Tempore Mary Kay Papen (D-Dist 38), John Arthur Smith (D-Dist 35), George Munoz (D-Dist 4) and three members of the Corporations Committee, Clemente Sanchez (D-Dist 30), Phil Griego (D-Dist 39), John Sapien (D-Dist 9).

“Food & Water Watch is disappointed that the Senate did not stand up for the rights of consumers to  have basic information about their food this week, but we are not discouraged,” said Food & Water Watch’s New Mexico Organizer Eleanor Bravo. “Support for mandatory GE food labels has never been stronger. Just like nutrition and country-of-origin labels before, consumers have the basic right to choose for themselves whether or not to buy and eat GE foods. The time for transparency and truth about GE foods has come and we hope New Mexico’s congressional delegation will lead on this issue the next time around. We will continue to build broad public support for our right to know.”

Contact:

Eleanor Bravo, Food & Water Watch, 505-730-8474

Senator Wirth, 505-988-1668 ext. 104

Over 25 organizations join forces to create “Protect Our Colorado” and calls on state officials to protect residents from dangerous energy extraction process

Denver, Colo.— Today, more than 25 business, solar, farming, faith, consumer, environmental, grassroots and social justice organizations around the state came together to announce a new coalition to oppose the controversial oil and gas extraction process of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. The coalition, Protect Our Colorado, will call on Governor John Hickenlooper and state legislators to ban fracking in Colorado.

“Fracking endangers our health and contaminates our clean air and water. For the future of our children and our state, it’s essential that we stop fracking in Colorado and move immediately to a renewable energy economy,” said Casey Sheahan, CEO of Patagonia, Inc.

Earlier this month, Longmont became the first city in Colorado to ban fracking in a historic bipartisan vote, indicating that the tide of public opinion is turning away from fracking as more residents learn of its negative impacts on health, safety, property, air, water and families throughout Colorado.

“The overwhelming victory in Longmont and the launch of Protect Our Colorado signals that more and more Coloradans are waking up to the dangers of fracking. We are pro-Colorado, and there is no place for fracking in Colorado,” said Kaye Fissinger of Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont. “Governor Hickenlooper has ignored, bullied and sued citizens in order to expand fracking in Colorado. It’s time that Governor Hickenlooper start representing the people of Colorado instead of the oil and gas industry by banning fracking in our state.”

With 47,000 fracked wells throughout the state, and the oil and gas industry looking to substantially expand that number in the next decade, Colorado has become an epicenter of fracking in the United States. A method of extracting oil and gas from rock deep beneath the earth’s surface, fracking uses high volumes of toxic mixtures of chemicals, 20 percent of which have been shown to cause cancer, and up to 50 percent of which can affect nervous, immune, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems. A recent University of Colorado-Denver School of Public Health report found that people living within a half-mile of fracking operations were exposed to air pollutants five times above the federal hazard standard, which could increase their chances of developing cancer by 60 percent.

Despite these scientific dangers, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) just passed rules that do nothing to protect the health of people of Colorado. Instead state regulators are proposing that wells be situated only 500 feet from homes, schools, public parks, lakes and rivers.

In addition to the public health problems associated with the process, oil and gas companies regularly “externalize” many of the costs of doing business, making the local communities pay these costs, which include significant increases in heavy truck traffic and road damage, increased noise, dust, crime and demand on social and health-care services, police, fire, and emergency services, degraded air and water quality, and property value declines near well sites by as much as 75 percent.

“The oil and gas industry is lowering our quality of life along with our property values.” Audy Leggere Hickey of Boulder County Citizens for Community Rights. “Governor Hickenlooper needs to show strength, courage and integrity. He needs to stand up for the people of Colorado to ban fracking.”

A recent study by Western Resource Advocates found that water used in one year for new oil and gas development throughout the state could supply the entire population of Lakewood, the fourth-largest city in Colorado. Farmers are continually forced to compete against the oil and gas industry for access to water, even during periods of drought such as the one experienced this past summer.

“It’s unconscionable that the industry is so powerful in Colorado that it’s allowed to pour millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground just steps away from areas where honest, hard-working Coloradans are trying to make a living, raise their families and send their children to learn,” said Ashley Collins with Adams County Unite NOW. “We can’t let Governor Hickenlooper and powerful special interests ride roughshod over local communities.”

Fracking is also exacerbating the climate crisis, as huge volumes of methane have been documented leaking at fracking wellheads, according to recent reports. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in our atmosphere. This has led some researchers to surmise that fracked natural gas may be as or more dangerous to the global climate than burning coal.

“These leaks are contributing to climate destabilization, which has already loaded the dice for record-breaking storms, floods, heat, and the wildfires and drought that have begun to plague our state and others in recent years,” said Micah Parkin, Colorado and Regional Organizer for 350.org.

A report issued by Food & Water Watch reveals that the industry may be poised to export as much as 40 percent of current U.S. consumption of natural gas and oil overseas to foreign markets, posing new questions for states that allow fracking to take place.

“Colorado’s oil and gas industry is threatening our health, safety and property in order to export natural gas overseas to foreign markets,” said Sam Schabacker, Mountain West Regional Director for Food & Water Watch. “Fracking has absolutely nothing to do with energy security and everything to do with the oil and gas industry looking for new and creative ways to turn a profit. That’s definitely not a burden Coloradans needs to take on.”

For more information, visit: http://www.protectourcolorado.org

Protect Our Colorado is comprised of the following organizations: Patagonia, Lighthouse Solar, Colorado Progressive Coalition, 350.org, Food & Water Watch, CREDO, Unitarian Universalist Church of Greeley, Holy Terror Farm, Foodshed Productions, Citizens for a Healthy Community, Our Longmont, Adams County Unite Now, Boulder County Citizens for Community Rights, The Mother’s Project, Frack Free CO, Community for Sustainable Energy, Elbert County Oil and Gas Interest Group, East Boulder County United, Frack Files of Weld, Frack Free Loveland, Conscious Global Leadership, The Question Alliance, Frack Free Boulder, Denver Community Rights, Routt County Frack, Frack Free Fort Collins.

Contact:

Sam Schabacker, Food & Water Watch, 720-295-1036

Ashley Collins, Adams County Unite NOW, 303-915-6757

Audy Leggere-Hickey, Boulder County Citizens for Community Rights, 303-667-4691

Kaye Fissinger, Our Longmont, 303-678-7267

Commonsense legislation will give consumers the right to know what’s in their food

SANTA FE, NM—This week State Senator Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe-25) pre-filed a proposed amendment to the New Mexico Food Act to require the labeling of genetically engineered food and feed. The amendment (SB 18) was drafted with support from the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch and is strongly supported by many national and local organizations and individuals including food cooperatives, organic farmers, environmentalists and food justice proponents.

“The premise of this amendment is simple – New Mexicans deserve the right to know what’s in the food they are eating and feeding to their families,” said Senator Wirth. “Labeling GE foods and feed will empower consumers with basic information to help them decide for themselves the types of food they want to buy.”

Multiple public opinion polls show that the vast majority of American consumers want food derived from genetically engineered crops – plants altered in a laboratory with foreign genetic material to create novel genetic combinations and exhibit traits that do not occur in nature – to be labeled. GE foods have not been tested for long-term impacts on human and environmental health and safety and over 40 countries have mandatory GE food labels including Japan, China and Russia.

“Giving foods with GE ingredients a label will only improve and expand independent health and scientific knowledge about genetic engineering,” said Food & Water Watch’s New Mexico Organizer Eleanor Bravo. “We need the research of genetic engineering to be expanded beyond the companies who own the seeds and stand to profit and labeling will allow this to happen.”

This amendment would change the law to include a label on genetically modified food and feed products that are composed of more than 1 percent genetically engineered material. Since most processed foods and feed products contain some derivative of GE corn, soybean or cotton, they would need to be labeled under this amendment.

Additionally, foods that include alfalfa, canola, papaya, squash, sugar beet and sweet corn would also need to be labeled. An article of food or feed containing GE material that is not labeled would be considered “misbranding” under this new amendment, and violations would be dealt with the same way as current labeling violations are handled.

New Mexico’s environmental improvement board would be charged with establishing standards for measuring and quantifying the amount of GM material in food. There is no specific requirement for where the label should be on the package as long as it is “conspicuous and easily understandable to consumers.”

This amendment will be Senator Wirth’s first filing of his second term as a State Senator. During his two terms in the State House, Senator Wirth carried a variety of legislation signed by the Governor. Some of his successful legislation includes laws to expand an open space tax credit, to restrict the use of eminent domain for private economic development, to allow local governments to enact water conservation ordinances and to better protect homeowners from property damage caused by government action.

SB 18 will be taken up by the legislature when the session begins on January 15 and can be viewed at: http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/_session.aspx?chamber=S&legtype=B&legno=%20%2018&year=13

Contact:

Eleanor Bravo, Food & Water Watch, 505-730-8474

Senator Wirth, 505-988-1668 ext. 104

By Scott Edwards

Scott Edwards, co-director of the Food & Water Justice project

While the nation was largely focused on the presidential election in the swing state of Colorado, there was another very important vote taking place in the state in Longmont, a city of about 86,000 people located just northeast of Boulder. On the same day Obama carried Colorado, the citizens of Longmont voted overwhelmingly to ban the harmful practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as a method of extracting local gas deposits in their community. Longmont’s ban of fracking was nothing short of heroic given the undue influence, massive amounts of money and open threats of financial ruin thrown about by the oil and gas industry and the state’s governor leading up to the vote on November 6^th. 

Each day brings new, irrefutable evidence that fracking is poisoning our communities. Data released just last week shows that 17 percent of the over 2000 fracking chemical spills and releases reported in Colorado resulted in groundwater contamination with cancer-causing chemicals like benzene. None of that, of course, gives the industry or its supporters any pause. In fact, groups like Environmental Defense Fund and the fracking companies have once again shamelessly joined hands and are sharing talking points in Colorado in response to this new evidence. They’re jointly calling for a testing protocol to raise “public confidence” in fracking when the only thing the public can be increasingly confident about is that fracking is threatening their communities and clean water. 

The passing of the ban was the latest step in Longmont’s battle to keep the oil and gas industry from polluting their drinking water and poisoning their community. The next fight will be in the courts, where industry will dispatch its high-priced lawyers to ask a judge to quash the rights of tens of thousands of Longmont residents and allow the big gas companies to do what they want, where they want, without regard for the citizens of the state or the democratic process which enacted the ban in the first place.

On one level, this will be a legal battle about fracking and the devastation it brings to our public health and precious resources. The fracking companies like to pretend that fracking is harmless, but the truth is the fracking “debate” ended in 2005 when the industry deployed their lobbyists and got Dick Cheney and Congress to exempt their inherently harmful gas extraction process from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Their need for an exemption from the one federal law that protects our aquifers was an open concession that they couldn’t engage in fracking without poisoning our drinking water supplies. That fact was just proven with the latest Colorado contamination data. The SDWA free pass added to their exemptions to parts of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource and Conservation Recovery Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and virtually any other public health law with the words “safe,” “clean,” “conservation” or “environmental” in it.

But even all these regulatory exemptions aren’t enough for the industry; they’ll be walking into court any day now in Colorado seeking an exemption from democracy, the last great hurdle in their effort to poison and pollute with absolute impunity.  And that’s the other important aspect of this upcoming case – its about the fundamental rights of people in communities in Colorado, and elsewhere, to decide what they want their towns and cities to look like, what kinds of activities they want taking place next to their schools and playgrounds, how safe they want the water they drink and the air they breath to be.

Whether you’re for fracking or against it, whether or not you’re paying attention to study after study which shows that fracking is having detrimental impacts on ground and surface waters, airways, climate, property values and public health, and regardless of whether you think extreme fossil fuel development is worth the price we’ll all have to pay if fracking is allowed to proliferate even more, the one thing we can all agree on is that we live in a country where voting and the democratic process should count for something. All, that is, except for industry and the bought-and-paid-for politicians who are so willing to sacrifice the rights of their citizens for the profits of fracking companies. 

Just as EDF has lost its way in the fight to preserve our environment, Colorado’s governor, John Hickerlooper, has forgotten who elected him when he recently stated that that he would support industry if they sued his own citizens in Longmont over the fracking ban.  Perhaps Hickernlooper should take a lesson from the authors of Colorado’s State Constitution; they understood the rights of local citizens in ways that the governor doesn’t seem to grasp. This document, written in 1876, grants the people of Longmont and everyone else in the state “essential and inalienable rights,” including the right to enjoy and defend their lives and liberties and protect their property, to seek and obtain safety.  They also understood that these inalienable rights can never be eclipsed by the financial interests of industry. Article XV of the Constitution says that the state can never use its powers to “permit corporations to conduct their business in such a manner as to infringe the equal rights of individuals, or the general well-being of the State.”

Once the will of corporations take over the rights of citizens, we lose the power to determine our own future. When industries get to decide how safe our water and air is, we no longer control our own health and safety. And if the fracking companies who seek to profit in Longmont area allowed to undo the November 6^th fracking ban, we can no longer pretend to live in a democracy.

Concert & Rally features Jakob Dylan, Mariel Hemingway and Darryl Hannah

 DENVER, Colo. — A rapidly growing list of business and environmental leaders, non-profits and entertainers are joining forces to fight against hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” in Colorado. On October 23, at Civic Park on Capitol Hill in Denver, a coalition called “Frack Free Colorado” will draw attention to the dangers of fracking and call for a concrete plan to move the state of Colorado away from natural gas and other dirty extractive industries and toward a renewable energy economy.

“As Coloradans, we feel that it’s imperative to assess the environmental and health impacts of the fracking process,” says Allison Wolff, CEO of Vibrant Planet and co-organizer of Frack Free CO. “The collective goal of everyone involved in Frack Free Colorado is to open up a dialogue regarding the effects of fracking on our communities, families and environment. We want to educate the public on the dangers of this process and accelerate clean energy alternatives.”

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique used to extract gas and oil from rocks that are 2,000 to 10,000 feet below the earth’s surface. Deep wells are drilled through the aquifer to reach shale rock formations and then millions of gallons of chemicals, sand and water are injected at high pressure into the soft, sedimentary rock, breaking it apart and releasing stores of methane and oil. The natural gas industry enjoys special exemption from The Safe Drinking Water Act, The Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, , and the National Environmental Policy Act for this dangerous fracking process. A single fracked well requires an access road, 2-8 million gallons of fresh water, between 10,000 and 40,000 gallons of chemicals, many of them known carcinogens and endocrine disrupters, and at least 1,000 diesel truck trips. There are over 45,000 fracked wells in Colorado, with plans to triple that number in the next decade. The enduring effects of fracking are unknown.

The Frack Free Colorado event on October 23rd, is modeled after the successful New York event “Songs Against Drilling” earlier this year blending education with entertainment as celebrities and experts take the stage to voice their concerns about fracking and celebrate our opportunity to move to renewable energy today. Celebrities in attendance will include Daryl Hannah, Mariel Hemmingway and Leilani Munter (car racing’s Carbon Free Girl). Jakob Dylan and Rami Jaffee of the Wallflowers and Colorado band, Elephant Revival will perform along with other to be announced musicians. Fracking experts like acclaimed ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber and Sam Schabacker from Food & Water Watch will help educate the public about fracking.

“The natural gas industry, which has been mistakenly touted as a clean energy provider, is polluting our rivers, aquifers, wildlife and citizens,” explains Tara Sheahan, Founder of Global Conscious Leadership. “In addition, oil and gas companies estimate that they will use approximately 6.5 billion gallons of water in Colorado this year. Our state does not have enough water to support this growing industry. Frack Free Colorado’s goal is to help people take action to lessen their dependence on natural gas and move everything from their consumer spending to investments to businesses that support a sustainable future—we need to start living like First Nation people who view the earth as a relative versus a resource to exploit. Post event, we are organizing a number of meetings with leaders across government, business, and nonprofit sectors to design a plan for speeding Colorado’s economy toward one based on renewable energy and sustainable food systems.”

Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, explains, “clean water is the most important element on the planet. According to environmental futurists such as Lester Brown, we will run out of water well before we run out of oil or topsoil. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that further accelerates the decline of our clean water supplies.”

Frack Free Colorado is sponsored by Patagonia, Prana, Black Diamond, New Belgium Brewing Company, Backpacker’s Pantry, Vibrant Planet, Conscious Global Leadership, The Invisible Spark, 1% for the Planet and Backbone Media. The event’s co-organizers include actor Mark Ruffalo’s Water Defense, Food & Water Watch, Clean Water Action, CREDO, Sierra Club, etown, Fractivist, Rock the Earth, East Boulder County United, Wilderness Workshop, Erie Rising, The Mothers Project, Adams County Unite Now, Boulder County Citizens for Community Rights, Our Health Our Future Our Longmont and What the Frack?! Arapahoe.

For more information, visit www.frackfreeco.com on Facebook at www.facebook.com/frackfreeco and Twitter @FrackFreeCo.

 Contact: Sam Schabacker, [email protected], 720-449-7505

How U.S. Communities Can Secure Local Public Control of Privately Owned Water and Sewer Systems

Many communities across the country want local public control of their water and sewer services. Municipalization — the purchase of a privately owned system by a local government — is a fairly common occurrence, but for communities unfamiliar with it, the process could appear daunting. This guide provides an overview of the process and a number of logistical considerations involved in government purchases of privately owned water and sewer systems. Although the general procedure is similar, the specifics will vary by situation, partly because every state has its own legal and regulatory framework.

These are the four basic phases involved in a public purchase of a privately owned water system:

Get the guide in full.

1.  Study and planning
2. Negotiation
3. Condemnation (if negotiation fails)
4. Sale and transition

The entire process must be as open and transparent as possible, with ample opportunity for public input. Communities will need to make several key decisions about how they want their water systems to work, and these choices will have long-term effects on water service. Municipalization is fairly straightforward unless the company owning the system refuses to come to the bargaining table. Certain large water companies

frequently spurn negotiation and aggressively resist local-control efforts. In these instances, strong community organization is essential to counter the opposition from special corporate interests and to see the municipalization through the condemnation process.

Federal and state policies should support public ownership of community water and sewer systems. Legislators should streamline the municipalization process and forestall unnecessary and wasteful legal challenges from large water corporations.

Water and sewer services are natural monopolies — necessary for public health and without substitution. Responsible and locally accountable public operation can best ensure safe and affordable service for all.