---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       Sierra Club Chapter and RCC Conservation Chairs
              <[log in to unmask]>
Poster:       Ed Hopkins <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      SIERRA CLUB WATER CAMPAIGN
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SIERRA CLUB CLEAN WATER CAMPAIGN

Dear Chapter Chair/ Group Chair/ Conservation Chair:

As one of its four major national campaigns, the Sierra Club plans to stop
the virtually unregulated pollution from enormous animal feedlots (called
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs) that can house thousands
or even tens of thousands of animals.  Every person who eats meat or drinks
water is connected to this problem, and we need the help of every Chapter
and every member, both rural and urban, to solve it.  We urge you to
participate actively in this campaign.

CAFOs, from the huge dairy feedlots in California to the giant hog farms in
North Carolina, are one of the nation's most serious sources of water
pollution.  They have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers and streams in 22
states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states, according to the
Environmental Protection Agency.  Catastrophic waste lagoon spills and
chronic overapplication of animal waste to the land have caused massive
fishkills, led to eutrophication of rivers and estuaries, contributed to
the growth of the toxic pfiesteria microbe, helped produce a giant "dead
zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, and contaminated drinking water supplies with
health-threatening microbial pollutants and nitrates.

Some 25 Sierra Club chapters have worked to solve these environmental
threats, often in coalition with family farm organizations whose members'
livelihoods are threatened by the explosion in the number of factory farms.
 Sierra Club activists have helped win moratoria on CAFOs in Frederick
County (Maryland), Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia, South Dakota, Mississippi,
and other states, and have campaigned to strengthen outdated state water
pollution protections.  More than 10,000 Sierra Club members showed their
concern about CAFOs by returning postcards from the Sierra magazine urging
USDA Secretary Dan Glickman to take action.

Our CAFO campaign, operating at the local, state, and federal levels, will
advocate a moratorium on new CAFOs until adequate protections are in place
to prevent water pollution, including individual Clean Water Act permits
for factory farms, incentives to get rid of failed waste technologies such
as lagoons, and provisions that make the well-financed corporations that
own the animals, not just the individual farm operators, liable for
environmental damage their animal factories cause.

Some of the key tactics the campaign plans include the following:

- a brochure to inform consumers about CAFOs, which we intend to distribute
through co-ops and other venues where we can expect to find receptive
audiences;

- a report describing the corporate subsidies that have assisted the growth
of CAFOs;

- technical and organizing advice to Chapters/Groups and the rural
communities fighting CAFOs;

- an activists' toolkit that will help Chapters/Groups participate in CAFO
campaigns at the state and local level;

- advertising to build public demand for reform, and;

- volunteer water quality monitoring near CAFOs to document their
pollution.

The campaign will offer all Chapters and Groups many opportunities to
participate and to develop activists, and we will need your involvement if
we are to succeed in protecting our health and environment from livestock
waste pollution.  Please contact anyone on the list below for information
on this critical campaign.

Sincerely,


Hank Graddy
Chairman, CAFO Work Group
[log in to unmask]
606-846-4905


PS: Don't miss Big River Week - June 11-14 in Washington, DC.  Big River
Week will offer introductory and graduate-level training on how to fight
CAFOs, citizen water monitoring, and other clean water issues. You'll
receive more details about this event soon.

Ken Midkiff
[log in to unmask]
573-815-9250

Ed Hopkins
[log in to unmask]
202-675-7908

Mark Derichsweiler
[log in to unmask]
405-360-6445

Debbie Neustadt
[log in to unmask]
515-265-2018

Paula Carrell
[log in to unmask]
415-977-5668

Susan Patton
[log in to unmask]
606-356-8582

Bob Bingaman
[log in to unmask]
202-675-7904

Charles Benjamin
[log in to unmask]
913-842-8323

Roy Hengerson
[log in to unmask]
573-635-8066

Chris Bedford
[log in to unmask]
301-779-7944

Bob Warrick
[log in to unmask]
402-634-2361

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