You Too can Live in a CLEAN Community
The local blogger over at A Brand New Day took time out for lunch on Friday to attend what was billed as an environmental discussion. Representatives from IDEM were on hand to discuss the Comprehensive Local Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) program. It was on my calendar, there because of my work with the COPE Environmental Center, but I got too busy to get over there. Maybe it was a good thing to have missed:
What does the proliferation of CAFO’s have to do with my hometown wanting to become a “CLEAN Community”? Well, IDEM is one of the agencies in charge of the CLEAN Community program. IDEM also grants permits for CAFO’s. A municipality can earn the CLEAN Community designation by doing little more than choosing five environmental issues it wants to work on and carrying them through with policies and practices of their day to day work. Examples that were given at the luncheon meeting included a city having curbside recycling for its residents but realizing it is not doing any recycling at the municipal building. In other words, if you can leave your pop cans in a recycle bin for the city to pick up, the city will make sure that it also has recycle bins available for its employees to use while they are on the job. Other examples included replacing gas-guzzling city vehicles with more economical models, making sure that city trucks that run on diesel don’t sit around and idle, and selling surplus fuel that is a spill hazard. Those things are all well and good, and every little bit counts, I suppose. But will designating CLEAN Cities because of practices such as employees dropping their pop cans into recycle bins dramatically improve the quality of life in Indiana? How can it, when much of the countryside will be covered with CAFO’s, if the gov’nor and his friends have their way? Take your pick: Would you rather have clean water, fresh air, and sustainable agriculture that doesn’t increase the risk of foodborne illness and become an incubator for the ever evolving bird-flu virus? Or would you rather go to bed at night knowing that city employees have a recycling bin to throw their pop cans into?
Link.
January 30th, 2006 09:23
Wow! You are fast! I didn’t post that until late last evening–too late to make your CAFO Sunday post. Thanks for the plug.
January 31st, 2006 11:02
Well said ! CAFOs are littering our country-sides and there seems to be no stopping them under the current administration. One of Jackson Co. newspapers, The Tribune is promoting “Hog Farms Surge ” in 1/30/06 edition.
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