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/meet_renee/questionnaires/
Environmental Questionnaire
Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, DC Chapter and Friends of the Earth Action are jointly issuing this candidate questionnaire.
NAME: Renee Bowser
WARD: 4
1. PERSONAL BACKGROUND: Please describe what you have done to improve the quality of the natural environment in the District of Columbia.
I have helped build the DC Statehood Green Party, establishing a party in the District that accepts no corporate contributions, especially money from developers, real estate firms, and other business interests whose influence on other political parties has compromised the quality of DC's natural environment and led to damaging policies on land use, sprawl, public transportation, etc. The DC Council should have at least one member who gives environmental and other civic organizations greater priority than major DC (and especially outside-DC) businesses, and we should work to give groups like the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Clean Water Action a presence in Ward 4, where they are currently invisible. (I have also worked with my Union (UFCW) in North Carolina to control pollution from packing plants.)
SMART GROWTH
2. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: An important way to improve our region’s air quality and create more livable neighborhoods is to invest in maintaining and expanding our public transportation system. In the last several years, the Sierra Club and others have pressed Metro to implement a series of recommendations to become more accountable to riders and has lobbied the D.C. Council and the Maryland and Virginia legislatures to establish a region-wide dedicated source of revenue for Metro to ensure that the system will be able to meet the transportation needs of the increasing number of people living in the Washington, D.C. region.
The District Department of Transportation has been studying alternatives for returning streetcars to D.C. streets and is expected to release its final study in the near future. As envisioned, a 40-mile District-wide streetcar network could allow the city to grow by 100,000 residents without the nightmare of 100,000 new cars and the congestion, parking and air pollution problems they would bring. Evidence shows that streetcars can move several times more people than one lane of automobile traffic, and they have the potential to revitalize neighborhoods and improve access to commercial corridors.
Q 2a: Do you support investing in building a streetcar network in the District?
Yes __X____ No ______
Q 2b: If you answered “yes,” what will you do to make this a reality? If you answered “no,” please explain.
I'd begin by addressing the Metro system's current budget shortfall which has led to threats to cut service and raise fares. Council should not balance the budget by cutting funding for public transportation; rather by enacting a fair, progressive tax plan, in accord with Fair Budget Coalition recommendations, that would modestly increase taxes for DC's top income brackets (who currently pay lower percentages than middle- and low-income DC residents) and eliminating corporate welfare and tax loopholes. If DC's wealthiest were to pay their fair share, we'd have enough to cover current Metro needs, keep fares low, expand bus routes, and restore a streetcar system to DC. We should also study the innovative Green solutions of several South American cities, such as cheap fixed-route and multiple-passenger taxis, and expand the jitney bus program to serve Ward 4 neighborhoods. The Purple Line, which would bypass the need to go into DC for suburban commuters, would make it easier to commute without cars.
3. TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT:
Q 3a: Do you support modifications to existing plans and zoning restrictions to allow higher density development in corridors best served by mass transit?
Yes ___X___ No ______
I support easing some restrictions to promote greater use of mass transit; however, I would want to be mindful of and address community concerns regarding problems which greater density may bring. I also support the split-rate property tax plan that would penalize landlords who allow vacant, boarded-up houses and apartment buildings to draw trash, rats, and crime, and which drive other people in the neighborhood from their homes. Currently, these landlords get a tax break for NOT improving their properties. A split-rate tax plan would reward landlords who restore their properties, fill up existing houses and apartments, and improve the overall quality of neighborhoods in public transportation corridors.
WARD 4 CANDIDATES
Although it has been 30 years since the Metrorail system opened, much of the land adjacent to its stations remains undeveloped or underused. Even in the District, land use near many Metrorail station retains a suburban and automobile-oriented pattern that fails to fully leverage our investment in Metrorail. Optimal development would enhance pedestrian and bicycle access to Metrorail stations and increase economic growth. In order to meet the District's goal of adding 100,000 residents without the nightmare of 100,000 new cars, we must maximize the use of vacant land near Metrorail stations.
Q3b: Do you support mixed-use, pedestrian-and bicycle-friendly development on vacant land near Metrorail stations in general? On the parking lot next to Takoma Park Station specifically?
Yes ___X___ No ______
Yes; however, it should be accomplished in a way that maintains the valuable green areas around Metro stations like Fort Totten and addresses community concerns about rapid increases in density. We should also discourage car traffic by working to eliminate federal government subsidies to federal employees who park in DC. We should do everything possible to make bicycling, walking, and public transportation a lot cheaper and more convenient than using cars -- for people from outside DC as well as DC residents. We should also consider ways to encourage employers to reward employees who use non-car means to get to work.
WARD 7 CANDIDATES
Although it has been 30 years since the Metrorail system opened, much of the land adjacent to its stations remains undeveloped or underused. This situation is especially true at the Minnesota Avenue Metrorail Station, where the residents of adjacent residential neighborhoods must overcome an almost insurmountable barrier created by a combination of automobile-centric infrastructure and land use (including a freeway), poor pedestrian infrastructure and vacant lots.
Q3b: Do you support mixed-use, pedestrian-and bicycle-friendly development on vacant land near Metrorail stations in general? On vacant land near the Minnesota Avenue Station specifically?
Yes ______ No ______
PARKS
4. KLINGLE VALLEY: Klingle Valley, a stream valley that is an arm of Rock Creek Park, is the location of a narrow, two-lane road in NW that has been closed to automobiles since 1991 when a storm washed out a portion of the road and made it impassable. Rebuilding and reopening the road would pollute Rock Creek, harm mature trees alongside the road, and make the valley unsafe for recreational use at a cost of at least $7.2 million, according to recent estimates. For these reasons, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth continue to support preserving Klingle Valley as a park without automobile traffic. Currently, the District Department of Transportation is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) as a step toward rebuilding the road.
Q 4: Do you support the position of keeping Klingle Valley closed to automobiles and replacing the old road with a hiker/biker trail open for all District residents to use and enjoy for recreation?
Yes ______ No ______
In general, the Statehood Green Party has supported keeping Klingle Valley closed because of the pollution problems. However, the organizations should take their case to the residents and elected representatives for that area, including the Ward and At-Large Council Members, the ANCs, and the area civic associations. In explaining their case to the immediate communities, the organizations can explain the negative impact the opening will have on the greater DC community.
5. ROCK CREEK PARK: Over the last several years, the National Park Service has been reviewing several alternative approaches for the future management of Rock Creek Park. The Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth is on record as supporting Alternative 2½, a blend of Park Service alternatives that would close three segments of upper Beach Drive to commuter traffic 24-hours a day, seven days a week—not just on weekends, as it is currently managed—in order to increase recreational opportunities in our national park. In 2003, the Park Service proposed a compromise plan that would close the three segments to traffic on weekdays, but only during non-rush hour times—from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Subsequently, the Park Service scaled back its earlier proposal so that it would close only a single 1.5-mile segment of Beach Drive from Broad Branch Road north to Military Road on weekdays during the same mid-day, non-rush hour times. However, in its final management plan, the Park Service proposed little more than speed bumps, which would fail to expand recreational opportunities in the park.
Q 5a: Do you support efforts to limit automobile traffic on upper Beach Drive on weekdays, and advocate that the National Park Service implement such management changes?
Yes ___X___ No ______
Q 5b: Please elaborate. Under what circumstances would you support expanding the existing weekend closures to weekdays?
We should do all we can to discourage commuter traffic in Rock Creek Park. How we do so should be worked out with the participation of local residents who will be most affected by the closings, through their ANCs, civic groups, and their Council Members. The Sierra Club and others of us who support such closings should appeal directly to the local communities themselves, rather than have Council Members from distant wards impose them, which could easily backfire and result in no change at all to the amount of car traffic in Rock Creek Park.
GLOBAL WARMING
6. CLEAN CARS: Motor vehicles account for about 40% of carbon dioxide pollution nationwide, and every gallon of gas burned produces roughly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2), the leading greenhouse gas (GHG) pollutant and a major cause of global warming. In addition to carbon dioxide, two other kinds of vehicle pollution—nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—react when it’s hot and sunny and produce ground-level ozone, a pollutant for which the Washington Metropolitan Area is in violation with the Clean Air Act. The California clean cars law requires a 30% cut in GHG pollution from vehicles sold in California by the model year 2016. Currently 10 states including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine have adopted California's stricter vehicle regulations. On February 6th Councilmembers Mendelson, Cheh and Wells introduced Clean Cars legislation which would require the District to adopt California’s stricter vehicle regulations.
Q 6: Do you support this legislation?
Yes ___X___ No ______
DC should immediately implement California tailpipe emission standards for all new cars registered in the District (D.C. Clean Cars Program, http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/). A similar statute has now been passed in Maryland. We should also begin planning for a DC Congestion Charge, which would reduce air pollution and congestion in DC's core while providing revenue to subsidize and expand mass transit. I would introduce legislation for a Task Force (with government and community representation -- without interference from outside-DC business interests) to plan for such a charge to commuters driving to a designated core area of DC. Air pollution is directly linked to poor health (e.g., childhood asthma, triggered by particulates from diesel-powered buses and trucks). London is an example of how a congestion charge can improve the quality of life for residents. Federal starting funds may be available in the new budget.
7. CLEAN FUEL BUSES: Diesel exhaust contributes to the region’s severe ozone smog problem, damages the lungs and heart, and is linked to cancer. The Sierra Club, with strong support from the D.C. Council, successfully persuaded Metro to stop buying dirty diesel buses in favor of much cleaner buses running on compressed natural gas (CNG). Metro built two CNG fueling facilities and purchased several hundred CNG buses. Metro had agreed to build a third CNG facility in Maryland, but Governor Ehrlich’s appointee to the Metro Board forced Metro to reverse course and go back to buying diesel buses. Unfortunately, Mayor Williams’ appointee to the Metro board supported the Ehrlich reversal. The D.C. Council has unanimously supported CNG Metro buses and opposed Metro’s move back to diesel.
Q 7: Do you support policies that require Metro to buy only clean natural gas buses (or cleaner technology)?
Yes ___X___ No ______
DC should also enforce the law that prohibits bus drivers from idling and releasing unnecessary exhaust into the air, regardless of what kind of bus.
CLEAN & SAFE WATER
8. ANACOSTIA WATERFRONT CORPORATION: Councilmember Jack Evans and David Catania recently introduced bill number B17-0022, the "NCRC and AWC Reorganization Act of 2007," which would dissolve the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC) and the National Capital Revitalization Corporation. The AWC is the only governmental or quasi-governmental entity in the entire Anacostia Watershed with a specific mission to restore the Anacostia River. The environmental community was very engaged in working with the DC Council to craft the legislation that set up the AWC and to include in that legislation the provision that one of the core functions of the AWC include restoration of the Anacostia River. Last summer, the AWC Board passed a resolution requiring the AWC to set environmental standards for all of its developments that would serve as a model for others throughout the watershed. A committee at the AWC has been working since that time to develop standards that will minimize stormwater pollution into the river, protect wetlands, forest, and other green space in AWC projects, and ensure public access to and enjoyment of the river.
Q 8: Do you support dissolving the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation?
Yes ______ No ___X___
I believe we should take steps to make the AWC more accountable, placing it under greater public control. We should require and publish Environmental Impact Statements for all major development in DC, with detailed analysis of how such development will meet (or not meet) environmental standards, with special attention for our river fronts. Was an ANC Commissioner, I believe we should give ANCs subpoena power over the AWC and other city departments whose decisions directly affect the health and quality of life of local residents in order to ensure a level of performance that agencies like AWC have not met so far.
9. SAFE DRINKING WATER: The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) and the District’s Department of Health failed to report a massive lead contamination of Washington’s drinking water, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and many other government entities failed in their oversight responsibilities.
Q9: As a Councilmember, would you support a top-to-bottom review of the source protection, treatment and distribution systems of safe drinking water in the District of Columbia, with the District's Department of the Environment in charge of a committee that would include representatives of the water industry, science, health, the environment and residential consumers?
Yes ___X___ No ______
The DC Statehood Green Party, of which I am a member, has taken a very strong position on holding WASA accountable for lead contamination of drinking water, and we should also recognize DC Council's own responsibility for oversight of WASA (http://www.gp-us.org/press/states/dc_02_13_04.html). I support immediate implementation of recommendations of the Lead Emergency Action for the District (January 28, 2005), including creation of independent review of WASA's and Washington Aqueduct's management, infrastructure, treatment practices, public outreach, and operation and maintenance. We also need to monitor lead levels in drinking water in DC Public Schools; on February 15 and 16, 2007, the Washington Post reported elevated lead levels in five DC schools.
10. FUNDING WATER POLLUTION SOLUTIONS: The District's waters (the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek) are dirty with trash, street, and sewer and stormwater runoff and overflows. Our drinking water contains lead, rocket fuel, and other cancer and birth-defect causing contaminants. Drinking water and sewer pipes are old, out of repair and have caused flooding in our neighborhoods and have made public health problems worse.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers' Washington Aqueduct Division, WASA and others have failed to deliver fishable, swimmable, drinkable water for the residents, workforce and visitors of the nation's capital.
Q10: As a member of the City Council's Public Works and Environment Committee, would you support the creation of a long-term integrated water resource management plan for the District to make sure that the proper technical, financial, managerial and intergovernmental support is developed to fix the city's longstanding water infrastructural deficit?
Yes ___X___ No ______
I support a water resource management plan for DC that would be part of a comprehensive plan for Greening the District with establishment of a Task Force to provide leadership on cleaning up our water resources, promotion of water harvesting, retrofitting photovoltaics, solar heating and cooling, green roofs on existing infrastructure, all of which would generate 21st century employment for DC residents and reduce water and air pollution.
11. RESTORING DISTRICT WATERWAYS: Only the District of Columbia and Wyoming do not have the regulatory power to enforce federal water protection law.
Q11: Would you give the District's Department of the Environment the necessary tools and money to create a robust and effective program to stop the pollution that makes the District's waters unfishable and unswimmable?
Yes ___X___ No ______
The quality of DC's waters doesn't just affect recreation, like swimming and fishing. It's a larger public health concern: water from the Potomac, Anacostia, Rock Creek, and other sources seeps into our soil, our lawns, and eventually our homes. Similarly, air pollution from trash transfer stations and incinerators doesn't only affect people in the immediate vicinity of these sites, it spreads throughout DC.
RECYCLING
12. RECYCLING: Seventeen years ago the D.C. Recycling Act set the goal of recycling 45% of the District’s waste stream. Today, the city, by its own assessments, remains 20% short of that goal. D.C.’s Office of Recycling, says that the 45% goal is mathematically impossible unless we see increased participation from commercial sector properties. In 2005, the city made real progress toward its recycling goal by servicing the residential sector with a new single stream system. We applaud these efforts. In 2006 and beyond, the challenge facing the city as it strives to meet its recycling goal is how to get commercial properties to participate.
Q 12a: Do you support new funding for the Department of Public Works to hire at least one staff member for each of D.C.’s eight wards (currently there are only 4 staff members) who can be responsible for recycling education, inspection, and law enforcement in that ward?
Yes ___X___ No ______
Let's also give them power to take legal action against illegal dumpers and others whose actions harm the environment. I'd also promote a more aggressive public relations campaign ("reduce, reuse, recycle, repair") that stresses the economics of recycling and the responsibilities of the business sector.
Q 12b: Will you renew the city’s commitment to recycling by amending the Recycling Act of 1988 to ensure that the D.C. public schools set a good example for students by instituting recycling systems in all school system buildings and by teaching recycling in the classroom?
Yes ___X___ No ______
Recycling should be part of the overall repair and restoration of DC's public school facilities. Recycling should be part of the environmental component of a school curriculum that emphasizes civic rights and responsibilities.
Dated: February 21, 2007
Renee L. Bowser
5322 2nd Street, NW
Washington DC 20011
renee@reneebowser.org
(202) 882-1733
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