Blog Pups 8/1/21: Letters to Senators
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These are the letters I wrote to my senators regarding infrastructure funding for water and sewer improvements. They are a supplement to the Aug 1 blog titled “First Action: When the S**t Hits the Fan.” Addresses and other contact information have been removed.
Dear Senator Casey:
As a resident of Media, Pennsylvania and a faculty member of Penn State Brandywine (views here are of course entirely my own), I would like to first thank you for your excellent voting record around issues related to our climate crisis, and recently your introduction of the REVIVE legislation to re-create the Civilian Conservation Corps to assist with this urgent issue.
I am writing to call your attention to the issue of current and future contamination of our beaches and waterways due to climate change impacts, and ask you to support aspects of the infrastructure bills now being negotiated which would provide funds for repairing and improving our outdated stormwater and sewage systems. Recent extreme rainfall and flooding events, which are predicted to increase with climate change, overtax these systems and often result in overflow dumping of sewage near shorelines and beaches. Thus, in 2020, more than 10% of U.S. beaches were unsafe for swimming more than one-quarter of days on which sampling occurred. In Erie County, PA, one beach was contaminated almost half the days tested.[1]
These events will increase even with the best mitigation efforts in the coming years, so adaptation strategies must include improving this very basic public service. It will create jobs and result in a healthier, more productive population. I hope you will support strong waterworks and water treatment language in both the bipartisan and reconciliation infrastructure bills.
Thank you so much for your time and work on behalf of all Pennsylvanians and Americans.
Sincerely,
Mark Boudreau
Associate Teaching Professor of Biology
[1] Weissman, G. and J. Rumpler. 2021. Safe for Swimming, 2021 Ed. PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center & Frontier Group. https://pennenvironment.org/feature/ame/safe-for-swimming_2021
Dear Senator Toomey:
As a resident of Media, Pennsylvania and a faculty member of Penn State Brandywine, I would like to share my thoughts on a particular aspect of the bipartisan infrastructure bill related to water treatment. These views are of course entirely my own personal opinions.
I am writing to call your attention to the issue of current and future contamination of our beaches and waterways due to climate change impacts, and ask you to support aspects of the infrastructure bills now being negotiated which would provide funds for repairing and improving our outdated stormwater and sewage systems. Recent extreme rainfall and flooding events, which are predicted to increase with climate change, overtax these systems and often result in overflow dumping of sewage near shorelines and beaches. Thus, in 2020, more than 10% of U.S. beaches were unsafe for swimming more than one-quarter of days on which sampling occurred. In Erie County, PA, one beach was contaminated almost half the days tested.[1]
These events will increase even with the best mitigation efforts for coming years, so adaptation strategies must include improving this very basic public service. It will create jobs and result in a healthier, more productive population. I hope you will support the bipartisan infrastructure bill generally, and strong water infrastructure language specifically.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Mark Boudreau
Associate Teaching Professor of Biology
[1] Weissman, G. and J. Rumpler. 2021. Safe for Swimming, 2021 Ed. PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center & Frontier Group. https://pennenvironment.org/feature/ame/safe-for-swimming_2021
