skip to main content

Natural Resources Defense Council

Switchboard

Jon Devine's Blog

Recent Posts

Prosecuting Polluters Poorly

September 14, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Health and the Environment , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, enforcement, waterpollution, waterprogram

It was great to see Charles Duhigg's article about under-enforcement of water pollution laws yesterday.  Quite apart from the water angle, which we obviously care a whole lot about, it was wonderful to see that good print journalism is still...continued

Internal Watchdog Says EPA Must Get Busy Protecting Waterways from Nutrient Pollution

September 1, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Reviving the World's Oceans , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, deadzone, gulf, mississippiriver, nutrientpollution, water, waterpollution, waterprogram

I recently attended a conference about the health of the Mississippi River, and I was struck by a compelling analogy my colleague Matt Rota of the Gulf Restoration Network used to describe the giant Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.  The...continued

Mountaintop, Flat-top . . . Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

August 11, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, mountaintopremoval, waterprogram

One of the great things about our country is that the government often must give the public the opportunity to comment on something it is planning on doing, and then must actually consider those comments in making its final decision. ...continued

Clean Water Champions Stand Up in the Senate

June 18, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, water, waterprogram

Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the Clean Water Restoration Act, a landmark bill that will reinstate Clean Water Act protections against umpermitted dumping of pollution, filling, or destruction  for a host of water bodies jeopardized by a pair of...continued

"It Always Takes A Woman"

April 14, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, water, waterpollution, waterprogram

The title of this post is stolen from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who used the line during a recent public appearance.  (Click here, then click on the player button to watch it; the relevant discussion begins at about 15:40.) Administrator Jackson was...continued

Good News on the Water Front

April 2, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, supremecourt, water, waterpollution, waterprogram, wetlands

It's a good day.  Today, Senator Russ Feingold and 23 additional Senators joined to introduce the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2009, a bill that would ensure that the Clean Water Act applies to protect a host of water bodies that...continued

Caring for U.S. water on World Water Day

March 20, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, waterprogram, worldwaterday

World Water Day is Sunday.   Because I work in NRDC's Water Program, my colleague Melanie Nakagawa encouraged me to offer my two drops, as it were, about the domestic fresh water issues on which we focus.  This isn't as easy...continued

Taking Out the Trash

February 12, 2009

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Living Sustainably

Tags:
anacostia, stormwater, trash, water, waterprogram

Almost every day, I bike to work.  On the bike path, I get a close-up view of the Potomac River, which makes up the boundary between Washington, D.C., and Virginia.  Though it has improved dramatically since the Clean Water Act...continued

Safe and Sufficient Water: A Presidential To-Do List

November 25, 2008

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
armycorpsofengineers, cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, EPA, greeninfrastructure, greentransition, mountaintopremoval

As many of my colleagues are describing today, NRDC and a host of partner groups in the environmental, conservation, and public health community have created a document, called "Transition to Green," which lays out a detailed set of policies that we...continued

Beating A Dead Zone

October 22, 2008

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Reviving the World's Oceans , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, deadzone, nutrientpollution, wetlands

A new report released today by NRDC brings together recent information about a widespread pollution problem in the Mississippi River Basin and Gulf of Mexico and calls attention to a legal controversy that has made it more difficult to protect resources...continued

The Gulf Is Dead! Long Live the Gulf!

July 30, 2008

Posted by Jon Devine

Tags:
dead, gulf, mexico, simplesteps, zone

This week brought news that the Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone,” an area of water with very low oxygen that forms each year, was the second biggest on record.  That’s not good news for the critters of the Gulf, which find...continued

Unless

November 30, 2007

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about "The Lorax," Dr. Seuss's brilliant and unbelievably forward-thinking book about ecology, pollution, greed, and (ultimately) redemption.  You see, my 8-year-old is in his school production of a musical based on the book and,...continued

Cha-cha-cha, kumbaya, hi-ya!

October 18, 2007

Posted by Jon Devine in Curbing Pollution

Today, the Clean Water Act turns 35 years old.  How 'bout a round of song?Happy Birthday to you/Happy Birthday to you/Happy Birthday Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972/Happy Birthday to you!  (For extra measure, my kids would chime in...continued

The Little River That Could

October 16, 2007

Posted by Jon Devine in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cleanwateract, cleanwaterrestorationact, CWA, isolatedwaterbodies, non-navigablewaterbodies, rivers, supremecourt, waterpollution, wetlands

When I was a kid, even though I lived only a couple of miles from the ocean, the most important water body I could imagine was The River.  Hardly even a stream, The River was located beyond The Pit in...continued

Jon Devine
Jon Devine
Senior Attorney
Washington, D.C.
I'm a lawyer by training, but an ecologist at heart.  Though I have long been...
more

Feeds: Stay Plugged In

Switchboard Archives

Jon Devine's archives