Cheering the Champs

At this year's annual Massachusetts Clean Water Action awards, the national advocacy group nodded at Cape Cod for two of its 2024 environmental champions.

What are the environmental champions?

27 September 2024 - CAPE COD, MA - Since 1972 national advocacy group Clean Water Action has worked for clean water and clean energy, focusing on environmental health, ecosystem protection and community quality of life concerns -- and this year at the annual Massachusetts Clean Water Action awards on September 25 in Waltham,  it nodded toward Cape Cod for two of its 2024 "environmental champions."

These champions represent changes that help Massachusetts "cleaner, healthier, and more just" said  the organization; this years honorees include the Truro Community Kitchen and State Sen. Julian Cyr.

What did the John O'Connor Grassroots Leadership award recognize?

The John O’Connor Grassroots Leadership Award recognized Truro Community Kitchen (TCK) and the work it undertook in 2024 to move from disposable food containers to reusable ones, a change that required significant process changes but one that benefits both the environment and the long-term financial sustainability for the organization.

"It also saves a huge amount of money for us - it's a big investment up front .... but we are able then to redirect that money that we're not effectively throwing away in containers each week into our actual mission," aid Eli Sobel , one of  TCK’s founders. 

What did the Legislation Champion Award recognize?

The  second recognition – the Legislation Champion award – went to four legislators, including State Senator Julian Cyr, for work to remove the chemical family PFAS from firefighter turnout gear - part of a larger goal of preventing it from entering the environment.

PFAS has long been used for fire suppression and incorporated into many types of consumer and professional products  – it has been flagged as a potential cause of illness and can be found downstream of its original intended use in the Cape’s wells and water supplies.

"These are these forever chemicals ... the more we know about these forever chemicals, the more we understand that they are very harmful to human health," said Cyr. "This is really the first step in the broader work that we are trying to advance both around trying to remediating the existing PFAS contamination we have in our water supplies  and also turning off the spigots of PFAS in consumer goods."

Clean Water Action also honored State Senator Michael Moore, Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan, and State Representative Jim Hawkins as part of the leadership group that created the new 2024 legislation to ban PFAS in firefighters’ turnout gear.

You might also like ... A New Bit of Green in the Truro Community Kitchen/April 2024