September 2026 Networker: Bearing Witness
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Volume 31 (8), September 2026 |
Table of Contents |
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1. Executive Director’s Note by Carolyn Raffensperger
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Executive Director’s Note September 2026 Networker |
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As Martin Luther King Jr. said, quoting the abolitionist Theodore Parker, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. I’ve been thinking about the existential threats that have haunted my life over the many decades I’ve been alive. I can say with some certainty that the current threats—threatening all of humanity and the Earth—are worse than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime. Technology is running amuck, or at least the humans who build and sell the technology are running amuck. Somewhere between AI and climate change, we are now on the map of the future that says, “There be Dragons.” We’ve been having an internal discussion at SEHN about the fact that everywhere we look, things are worse than they were 35 years ago, in spite of all the work thousands of people have devoted to democracy, public health, and the environment. The underlying thought is, if we keep doing what we are doing and things get worse, shouldn’t we do something different? Sure, if you can just change tactics and there is a new approach that might work, go for it! However, there are times when this simple utilitarian view fails. Slavery was practiced in the United States for almost 250 years. If the abolitionists had given up after 150 years, where would we be? If change means giving up on justice, or refusing to tell the truth, or siding with the oppressor or polluter, I decline. In these dark times, full of existential threats, what is ours to do? And by “ours” I mean SEHN and our fellow travelers (like you!) The words “Bear Witness” come to mind, over and over again, like the refrain of a good work song or a lament. The Witness is an archetype that has a set of work requirements—show up, observe, tell the truth. Justice is well-served with a reliable Witness. Our work at SEHN has been to provide the best compilations of science and the best analysis of that science to community groups, policy makers, and journalists. They, in turn, forge that information into policy and decisions that in some cases protect the public from the scourges of air pollution. I think here of the work Carmi Orenstein has done with Sandra Steingraber to document the devastating public health impacts of fracking. We are pleased to announce that you can now download the second of a series of 9th edition Compendium updates here. This one adds extensive evidence to previous findings on the wide range of detrimental public health impacts of fracking, notably with regard to the risks of adverse birth effects and childhood cancers. You might ask, why keep doing the Compendium if the powers that be ignore the overwhelming evidence that fracking can cause cancer in children? Because the parents of those children and those children themselves desperately need someone to stand with them, to show up, bear witness, and tell the truth. I hope you hear the fire in my voice when I say, we will do all in our power to stop the devastation. |
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In this issue of the Networker, we want to share with you some of the work we’ve done in the past few months with a focus on water. About a year ago, we looked at the common threat to water by both hyperscale data centers and carbon capture and storage. There were few resources that told us about how much water these industrial facilities might use or how they might pollute water sources. We worked with the lawyer, Dusty Horwitt, to draft a model ordinance that communities can use when faced with the prospect of one of these monstrosities. Please use it freely in your own communities. We took the introduction to the model ordinance and turned it into a stand-alone fact sheet which asserts that access to clean water is a human right. You can find that here. We include in this newsletter another fact sheet about Congressional efforts to undermine the Safe Drinking Water Act by removing some aquifers from consideration when approving CO2 deep injection wells. This move would primarily impact rural aquifers that people depend on for agriculture and watering livestock. It is a bad idea. Corporations, corrupt politicians, and the kakistocracy are undermining our democracy, selling our children’s health to the highest bidder, and denying the basic human right of access to clean water. Someday they will look at their map and they will also see dragons. May they see us, breathing the fire of justice. May they realize that they will be held accountable for the debts they are leaving to future generations. And may we be there to witness their downfall. Carolyn Raffensperger |
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SEHN Offers a Guide to Creating a Water-Protecting Ordinance for Communities |
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Based on the premise that people have the human right to a clean environment—including clean water—and in the context of the onslaught of a new generation of large industrial projects taking communities off guard, SEHN is offering a new “Guide to Creating a Water-Protecting Ordinance for Communities.” This guide also reflects our commitment to the precautionary principle, which as we note in the preface, is arguably the most powerful decision-making tool for governments to use to fulfill their trustee responsibilities for protecting the right to water. The preface orients the reader to the current landscape regarding this human right, and provides background on what data centers and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects are and how they can pose risks to water quantity and quality. The tools of this resource are in the full document (inserted below and downloadable here), which includes a Table of Contents. Whether you are looking for more background or are ready to get to work, we hope you will find the guide very helpful in accomplishing transparency and the rule of law for the use and protection of the precious water in your community or region. |
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Safe Drinking Water Exemptions for Carbon Dioxide Class VI Wells Threaten Rural Water Suppliesby Carolyn Raffensperger and Dr. Ted Schettler on behalf of the Stop Carbon Capture Alliance |
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Background The carbon capture industry is pushing to weaken protections under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to expand areas where they can site Class VI injection wells for carbon dioxide (CO2). Documented failures at injection wells in Illinois and Texas have shown that carbon capture injection wells need more stringent protections for drinking water, not less. Disproportionate Impacts on Rural Communities The industry wants to create exemptions to Federal rules under the SDWA that protect potential sources of drinking water, including water supplies that are not currently used for drinking water, provided an aquifer has enough water to supply a public system and contains less than 10,000 mg/L of total dissolved solids. Weakening these standards would discriminate against small rural communities where people rely on well water for drinking, as well as ranchers and farmers who use underground aquifers for irrigation and livestock watering operations. If a CO2 injection well were to leak into an aquifer used for well water, irrigation, or livestock, it would acidify the water—mobilizing heavy metals and potentially other toxic materials—rendering it unusable in agriculture, for livestock, or for any drinking water purposes now or in the future. Weakening protections under the SDWA is even more concerning when we consider droughts and water scarcity could necessitate using these aquifers for drinking water sources, as crises mount and treatment technology improves. |
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