Clean Water Action
Sierra Club Washington, DC Chapter
Friends of the Earth Action
2008 Political Questionnaire
Further elaboration
I am a research biogeochemist Professor at Howard University, publications on lead pollution, environmental policy etc. My environmental activism: member of coalition for lead control (CSPI), early 1980s, resulting in phaseout of lead in gasoline, bottle bill (1987), recent lobbying for Clean Cars legislation in DC and many other issues. Environmental, social and economic justice are inseparable. This selection from my campaign flyer indicates my current emphasis: Immediate action to curb the childhood asthma epidemic and huge Metro DC carbon emissions driving global warming. A major source of both is traffic congestion especially from commuters health problems for all residents. Lower Metro fares, not raise them as WMATA recently did. Students should ride free, just as in London! Start planning now for a DC Congestion Charge to make this possible. Testified numerous times to DC City Council, most recently urging vigorous support for urban farming. Testimony and publications: http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/
CLIMATE CHANGE
1. COOL CAPITAL CHALLENGE: Recently, a citywide coalition of local businesses, non-profit organizations, and local government departments have collectively pledged to reduce their individual carbon emissions, creating a 1 billion pound city-wide reduction by 2009. Mayor Fenty, along with 400 other mayors nation-wide, has pledged to take this challenge. Meeting this challenge will constitute one third of the total levels of emissions that DC alone must reduce in order to meet the Kyoto Protocol target that Mayors Williams and Fenty, joining with over 400 mayors nationwide including several other Washington-area mayors, have committed to attain by 2012. This reduction will serve as both a springboard for more lasting solutions, business practices, and as an inspiring model for the rest of the country. Cool Capital will demonstrate the immense practical, financial, marketing, and environmental benefits of investing in stronger energy efficiency measures. (See www.CoolCapital.org)
1a. Will you support a call for all businesses in Washington to take the Cool Capital pledge?
Yes__x_ No______
1b. In September of 2006, the state of California passed a monumental climate bill that mandates the reduction of state carbon emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by the year 2050. Would you support a bill that calls for the District to reduce their emissions by the same degree?
Yes x No______
2. CLEAN FUEL BUSES: Diesel exhaust contributes to the region’s severe ozone smog problem, damages the lungs and heart, and is linked to cancer. The Sierra Club, with strong support from the D.C. Council, successfully persuaded Metro to stop buying dirty diesel buses in favor of much cleaner buses running on compressed natural gas (CNG). Metro built two CNG fueling facilities and purchased several hundred CNG buses. Metro had agreed to build a third CNG facility in Maryland, but then-Governor Ehrlich’s appointee to the Metro Board forced Metro to reverse course and go back to buying diesel buses. Unfortunately, Mayor Williams’ appointee to the Metro board supported the Ehrlich reversal. The D.C. Council has unanimously supported CNG Metro buses and opposed Metro’s move back to diesel.
2a. Will you support policies that require Metro to buy only clean natural gas buses (or cleaner technology)?
Yes ___x_ No ______
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
3. STREETCARS: An important way to improve our region's air quality and create more livable neighborhoods is to invest in maintaining and expanding our public transportation system. In recent years, the Sierra Club and others have pressed Metro to implement a series of recommendations to become more accountable to riders, and has lobbied the D.C. Council and the Maryland and Virginia legislatures to establish a region-wide, dedicated source of revenue for Metro to ensure that the system will
be able to meet the transportation needs of the increasing number of people living in the Washington, D.C. region.
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) studied alternatives for returning streetcars to D.C. streets and developed a plan that envisioned a 45-mile District-wide network of streetcar lines that
would complement existing Metrorail and Metrobus service. Evidence shows that streetcars can move several times more people than one lane of automobile traffic, and they have a larger capacity than a bus. They also have the potential to revitalize neighborhoods and improve access to commercial corridors. Adding these streetcar lines to our streets would help the city to serve an increasing number of
residents without the nightmare of all of the additional cars and the congestion, parking and air pollution problems they would bring. DDOT has taken positive steps toward building the first two lines along the H Street-Benning Road N.E. corridor and in Anacostia, but these plans have run into a number of obstacles along the way.
3a: Will you support investing the necessary D.C. funds in building a streetcar network in the District?
Yes _x_ No ______
The Sierra Club supports DDOT's plan to use overhead wires on D.C. streets for the singular purpose of providing electricity to power streetcars because overhead wires would provide cleaner, more reliable service than alternatives such as underground wires (notoriously unreliable) or diesel-fueled (dirty fumes) streetcars. However, current laws prohibit overhead wires in the
street right-of-way in the historic section of the city designed by Pierre L'Enfant (bounded by Florida Avenue on the north, Georgetown on the west and the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers on the south).
3b: Would you support an exemption to the legal prohibition on overheard wires for the purpose of powering streetcars in D.C.?
Yes _x__ No ______
ANACOSTIA and POTOMAC RIVERS
4. The Anacostia and Potomac Rivers have had troubled histories, particularly the Anacostia. Both rivers suffer from unsafe levels of sewage contamination caused by “combined sewer overflows,” and the Anacostia is additionally plagued by unacceptable levels of sedimentation, toxic contamination, and floating trash/litter. Through a long range plan of remediation and pollution control, the Mayor has set a noble goal of making the Anacostia River both swimmable and fishable by 2032.
4a. Will you commit to Mayor Fenty’s plan of achieving a fishable and swimmable Anacostia River by 2032?
Yes__x__ No_____ (should be and could be sooner)
PARKS
5. ROCK CREEK PARK: Over the last several years, the National Park Service has been reviewing several alternative approaches for the future management of Rock Creek Park. The Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth Action support “Alternative 2½,” a blend of Park Service alternatives that would close three segments of upper Beach Drive to commuter traffic 24 hours a day, seven days a week—not just on weekends, as it is currently managed—in order to increase recreational opportunities in our national park. In 2003, the Park Service proposed a compromise plan that would close the three segments to traffic on weekdays, but only during non-rush hour times—from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Then-Mayor Williams supported a “test closure” along these lines. Subsequently, the Park Service scaled back its earlier proposal so that it would close only a single 1.5-mile segment of Beach Drive from Broad Branch Road north to Military Road on weekdays during the same mid-day, non-rush hour times. However, in its final management plan, the Park Service proposed little more than speed bumps, which would fail to expand recreational opportunities in the park.
5a. Will you support efforts to limit automobile commuter traffic on upper Beach Drive on weekdays, and advocate that the National Park Service implement such management changes?
Yes __x__ No ______
6. KLINGLE VALLEY: This year the Council voted 10-3 to de-authorize the building of Klingle Road and instead budgeted funds for a less costly construction of a hiker/biker trail through Klingle Valley.
6a. If this matter is revisited by the Council, will you vote to keep automobile traffic out of Klingle Valley, and to fund construction of the hiker/biker trail?
Yes _x___ No ______
7. ANACOSTIA PARK: Mayor Fenty has proposed an 80-acre development for Anacostia Park, including public funding for construction of a new soccer stadium. This follows a long line of mayoral proposals for inappropriate development of Anacostia Park, including the Children’s Island Amusement Park (1980s) and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium (1990s), and others. The Sierra Club calls for a “no net loss” of park land in the City, meaning that park land can be converted into commercial development only if land of equal area/value can be converted into park land. Many large tracts of land could be converted into park land, including the Benning Road power plant, and RFK stadium.
7a. Will you oppose construction of the soccer stadium on National Park Service land?
Yes__x__ No______
7b. Will you support the principle of “no net loss” of park land?
Yes_x___ No_______
SAFE DRINKING WATER [Friends of the Earth Action/Clean Water Action question]
8. The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) and the District’s Department of Health failed to report a massive lead contamination of Washington’s drinking water, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and many other government entities failed in their oversight responsibilities.
8a. Would you support legislation that required:
1) government and school procurement of lead-free solder and flux in the District?
2) lead-testing at the drinking water tap for the rental or sales of housing?
Your Answers______Yes of course_________________________
8b. Would you support legislation that requires full lead service pipe replacement, and bans on partial pipe replacement for drinking water?
Yes___x___ No______
8c. Would you support increased integration of efforts between WASA, DDOT and DDOE on the deployment of new approaches and technologies for the conservation of water resources?
Yes___x___ No_______
RECYCLING
9. Twenty years ago the D.C. Recycling Law set a goal of recycling 45% of the District’s waste stream. Today the city, by its own assessments, remains 25 % short of that goal. According to the latest figures, only 17% of the waste materials collected by DPW trucks is in the form of recyclables, down from 20% in 2006 and 22% in 1995.
DPW’s Office of Recycling says that the 45% goal is unachievable unless we see increased participation from commercial sector properties.
The Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Clean Water Action support more earnest enforcement efforts, which should pay for themselves much as the City’s parking enforcement program is self-funding.
9a. Will you support measures to direct DPW to more vigorously enforce
the Recycling Law?
Yes __x__ No ______
9b. Will you renew the city’s commitment to recycling by amending the Recycling Law to ensure that the D.C. public schools set a good example for students by instituting recycling systems in all school system buildings and by teaching recycling in the classroom?
Yes ___x___ No ______
BICYCLING
10. DC was recently praised as the "most improved" bike city in the country by Bicycling Magazine, so we have reason to be proud of recent progress in terms of miles of bike lanes added, the new bike-sharing program, and increased numbers of bike racks. But as the issues of obesity, environmental health, and now high prices for gas, make more and more people turn to bicycling for transportation, much more needs to be done.
10a. Would you vote to support and provide leadership in the completion of the Metropolitan Branch Trail, connecting downtown sites with neighborhoods along the Red Line and into the Maryland suburbs, and of the Anacostia Trail?
Yes__x_ No______
10b. Do you believe the city should set specific targets on the percentage of people walking, biking and taking transit to work?
Yes___x__ No______
