The Chesapeake Bay is an ecosystem in peril. Pollutants from animal farms, urban and suburban development, sewage treatment plants, and coal-fired power plants are deposited into the Bay causing algae blooms that consume the dissolved oxygen and cause dead zones that cannot support aquatic life. To restore this environmental treasure and economic engine, all contributors to the Bay’s pollution problems must be held accountable. CPR works to ensure that state governments and the EPA are being vigilant, transparent, and equitable in holding polluters responsible for their share of the pollution.

Trump Trashes the Environment, Calls It Leadership, op-ed by Joel Mintz

In the drought summer of 2001, a simmering conflict between agricultural and environmental interests in southern Oregon's Upper Klamath Basin turned into a guerrilla war of protests, vandalism, and apocalyptic rhetoric when the federal Bureau of Reclamation shut down the headgates of the Klamath Project to conserve water needed by endangered species. This was the first time in U.S. history that the headgates of a federal irrigation project were closed—and irrigators denied the use of their state water rights—in favor of conservation. Farmers went so far as to mount a brief rebellion to keep the water flowing, but ultimately conceded defeat. In Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology and Dirty Politics, CPR Member Scholars Holly Doremus and A. Dan Tarlock examine the genesis of the crisis and the fallout from it.

On August 3, 2021, CPR Member Scholar Rebecca Bratspies presented testimony to the New York City Racial Justice Commission. She commented on environmental injustices in New York City and offered five recommendations for reforms that would help ensure that all New Yorkers can breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in healthy, thriving neighborhoods.

CPR joined the Southern Environmental Law Center and more than 150 other organizations in a letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, in support of the Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act of 2021.

The Center for Progressive Reform joined other public interest organizations in testimony in support of Maryland House Bill 250 — the Private Well Safety Act of 2022.