That’s right.  We’ll be out of the office this Saturday and next Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.  That’s five chances to come out and say “howdy”.  We’d love to see you at one of these events:

Saturday, April 18- Knoxville Earth Day, Pellissippi State Tech Community College

Monday, April 20- Climate Change & Water Film Festival, Maryville College

Wednesday, April 22- Climate Change & Water Film Festival, Univ, of the South in Sewanee

Saturday, April 25- Oak Ridge Earth Day, Bissell Park in Oak Ridge

Sunday, April 26- Party for the Planet, Knoxville Zoo

Did you know that you can watch the state legislature and all committee meetings live online?  Check out this link: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/livevideo/ for the live feed.  You can also visit the House or Senate Committee pages for archived videos and agendas for upcoming sessions.

Here are links to the House and Senate Environment Committees:

House Conservation and Environment Committee: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/house/committees/conserv-env.html

Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/committees/env-tourism.html

We will be watching these committees live and posting comments on our Twitter site.

Your elected officials, to be more precise.  TCWN has kicked off a massive campaign to encourage folks to call their State Senators and Representatives and demand they protect our state’s waters.

Right now, there are 14 destructive water bills in the Senate and House.  Any one of these bills could have a devastating impact on our water quality and quantity.  All of them combined- well, it’s just bad, bad, bad.

We have added a page to our website that summarizes each bill and provides talking points.  Feel free to use those points to write a letter or make a phone call to your Senator and Representative, especially if your representative belongs on one of these committees:

Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee

Steve Southerland, Chair
Ken Yager, Vice-Chair
Eric Stewart, Secretary
Tim Barnes
Charlotte Burks
Mike Faulk
Doug Jackson
Jack Johnson
Jamie Woodson

House Conservation and Environment Committee

Another day, another report of a TVA spill.  This time in Alabama.  This would be the second one this week, if you count the sediment release into the Ocoee River on Sunday.  Plus, the big one in Kingston (Renee has new photos to show everyone from her visit to the plant today).

Read more about both spills:

Widows Creek Fossil Plant (Alabama)

Tennessean

Ocoee #3 Dam Spill Coverage

Knoxville News Sentinel

KnoxViews.com

You can listen to the U.S. Senate Committee on Evironment and Public Works hearing on the coal ash spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant live online at several different places.

WATE-TV

WBIR-TV

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works website (audio only)

What do you think about what’s being said?