More than 6,500 North Carolinians are calling on state officials to restore Jordan Lake, Environment North Carolina and the Haw River Assembly said at a lakeside news conference today. Advocates delivered the thousands of postcards, emails, and petitions to state officials this afternoon, in time for the close of an official public comment period on the protection of the Triangle reservoir.

BP’s announcement today that it will avoid any increased pollution into Lake Michigan affirms that BP has heard the voices of hundreds off thousands of Great Lakes Region residents that Lake Michigan is our gem and drinking water, not our dumping ground. We expect no less of a company like BP, which has spent millions on a global advertising campaign touting its environmental practices, and which certainly has the resources to avoid this increase. Now BP must seek an amended discharge permit that codifies its pledge.

Environment Illinois will today present BP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with nearly six thousand signatures from Illinoisans demanding a halt to BP's unprecedented expansion of pollution into Lake Michigan.

The Conasauga River would receive the status of ‘Outstanding National Resource Water’ (ONRW), the highest level of protection identified in the Clean Water Act, if a recent petition filed by Environment Georgia and the Southern Environmental Law Center is enacted. If successful, the group’s efforts would make the Conasauga River Georgia’s first ONRW. Currently, Georgia is the only southeastern state, besides Mississippi, with no ONRW waterways.

The Smart Development for a Cleaner Bay Act of 2007, H-6143 (Sullivan- Coventry, West Greenwich) & S-808 (Moura- East Providence) will raise Rhode Island’s runoff standards for new development and redevelopment projects, to better protect the Bay and Rhode Island’s lakes, rivers and streams from pollution.

Statement of Christy Leavitt, U.S. PIRG Clean Water Advocate regarding new policy guidance which outlines the waterways protected under the Clean Water Act. This policy removes decades-old safeguards and adds to the confusion of what waters are protected under the Act.

A new report “Sewage Overflow: Billions of Gallons of Sewage Contaminate Lake Erie” released today by Environment Ohio reveals that more than ten billion gallons of sewage contaminated Lake Erie and waterways in the Lake Erie watershed basin from January 2005 – December 2005.

In a major victory for children's health and the environment, the Illinois Senate yesterday unanimously passed House Bill 943 which, pending the Governor's signature, will prohibit the sale of mercury-containing measuring devices, the largest class of mercury-containing products still legal for sale in Illinois.

Governor O’Malley signed into law this morning the Stormwater Management Act, HB 786/SB784. The bill sets higher standards for new development to reduce the polluted runoff that washes off our parking lots, roofs, and roads and damages our streams and pollutes the Chesapeake Bay. Environmental organizations also held an event to thank the bill sponsors, Del. Jane Lawton and Sen. James Rosapepe, for their hard work on this legislation.

A measure to protect and improve Colorado water quality passed the first of two votes by the House of Representatives today. Sponsored by Representative Kathleen Curry (D) and Senator Betty Boyd (D), the measure (HB07-1329) is designed to increase funding for the Water Quality Control Division to ensure clean, safe drinking water for all of Colorado.

In an important victory for both human health and the effort to clean up Puget Sound, Washington became the first state in the nation to initiate a complete ban on a class of toxic flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

In a victory for industrial and residential Great Lakes water users everywhere, the House Executive Committee unanimously passed House Bill 375, sponsored by State Representative Harry Osterman (D-Chicago), to implement the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact.

The Iowa House Environmental Protection Committee today voted to approve a bill that will protect Iowa’s air and water quality and rural quality of life from the livestock industry.

Two environmental groups and their local members announced today that they intend to sue Reliant Energy, Inc. for repeatedly discharging more than two million gallons of wastewater per day containing illegal levels of potentially toxic metals into the Conemaugh River from the company’s Conemaugh Generating Station, a large coal-fired power plant located in New Florence, Pennsylvania.

After over four years of fighting a losing battle in a Clean Water Act enforcement suit brought by OSPIRG and two local residents, Pacific Seafood Group, the third largest seafood company in North America, has agreed to remedy illegal pollutant discharges at its seafood processing facility in Warrenton, Oregon.