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IEC Blog

Lead Poisoning Awareness Week

By Iyana Simba | IEC Clean Water Advocate When it came to light in 2014 that residents of Flint, Michigan were exposed to elevated lead levels in their drinking water, the issue dominated headlines. Since then, cities like Newark, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Chicago have also found elevated lead levels in schools, childcare facilities, parks and residences. The CDC has found there is no safe level of lead exposure for children. Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, and learning and behavior problems, which can cause lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention and under-performance in school. Nationwide, lead finds its way into our drinking water through the 6.1 million lead service lines (LSLs) connecting businesses, schools and homes to the water main1. Roughly 12% of those lead service lines are found in Illinois

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October 25, 2019

Reclaimed Heritage: How Simple Appreciation is Better for Us and the Planet

By Crystal Kern | IEC Finance Director I grew up on a self-sufficient farm in central Kentucky. We had a diverse garden with more plant varieties than I can recall along with several animals. Everything produced on the farm solely supported our family. If we had an abundance of produce, we would invite neighbors over to help themselves to what they needed. We spent most of our spare time canning and preserving our food rather than running to the grocery store. I didn’t think of these things as sustainability practices at the time. They were just how we did things. But, that’s exactly what they were. We tended to the land and picked everything by hand, making due with just a tractor and a horse. We loaded our harvests into the corn crib ourselves and spent our days loading hay bales. Our grains were processed on-site with an old hammer mill.

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September 5, 2019

Introducing IEC Staff Picks

Get to know IEC while picking up a few tips and tricks for protecting the environment Historically, our blog has been a place for IEC staff to share our environmental policy expertise and educational updates on the latest issues facing Illinois. However, we’ve been looking for new ways to connect with other environmentalists like you more regularly, because after all, we are all in this fight together. In an effort to do that, we’re adding a new regular series to our blog with the goal of sharing with you more about who we are, what moves us to do this work and what we’re excited about most. For our first “picks”, a few members of our team have shared some of their personal favorite sustainability tips and ways in which our work ties back into our favorites. When in doubt, throw it out by IEC Executive Director Jen Walling This

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August 6, 2019

Team IEC on Capitol Hill

While a majority of our work at the Illinois Environmental Council is focused on passing and implementing environmental policies here in Illinois, we also engage with our state’s congressional delegation to influence federal environmental priorities as well. Recently, our team traveled to Washington D.C. where we met with congressional staff, several members of Congress and Senator Durbin as part of the national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Lobby Day. LCV is a national organization which seeks to pass pro-environment policies at the state and national level. Check out our video recap of our day from the Capitol here! IEC became the LCV state affiliate for Illinois in April 2018, which means we are plugged into a network of other state-level organizations fighting many of the same battles that we are fighting here in our state. Our trip to D.C. provided me a great way to get to know my new(ish)

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June 28, 2019

Illinois Has the Greenest Cannabis Bill in the Country

With input from the environmental community, Illinois is about to become the national leader for environmental protection in the cannabis industry. Earlier this year, Governor Pritzker along with members of the Illinois General Assembly, including chief sponsor Senator Heather Steans, introduced legislation to legalize recreational cannabis cultivation, sale and use in Illinois. For many this was no surprise, as it followed a round of state elections in which the legalization of recreational cannabis was a topic of hot debate, but polling showed it was supported by the vast majority of Illinoisans. Proponents of legalization have argued that ending the war on drugs is an important policy goal and a properly designed tax structure could allow cannabis to fund valuable state programs such as public education. But one issue has remained – is the ‘green’ industry really all that green-friendly? Let’s take a look at a few topics on this question.

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May 31, 2019
Sterigenics

Sterigenics, Ethylene Oxide and Human Health

Jen Walling Executive Director, Illinois Environmental Council Without a family history of breast cancer, no one can pinpoint how my mother developed cancer. I was ten years old at the time, and as everyone who has gone through a similar experience knows, the diagnosis was incredibly hard on my family. The experience made enough of an impression on me that I have made it my life’s work to protect public health by creating and enforcing regulations on toxins and carcinogens. I grew up in Darien, Illinois, which, until recently, did not seem related to my mom’s illness. But a new finding has hit very close to home: ethylene oxide, a chemical used in sterilization, was found to be highly carcinogenic with no safe level of human exposure, and a facility that has emitted ethylene oxide for over three decades, Sterigenics, is located less than 2 miles from the home I

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October 4, 2018
Take Action

Federal Setbacks and the State of Illinois Energy Policy

By Cary Shepherd Policy Director, Illinois Environmental Council The federal administration unveiled its latest attempt to prevent our nation’s transition to a clean energy economy earlier this week. After announcing the repeal of the Clean Power Plan – the Obama Administration’s signature climate change policy – the EPA has proposed to replace it with the ironically named Affordable Clean Energy Rule. Little about this rule is either clean or affordable. This new proposal removes the statewide cap on carbon emissions from power plants and allows states to independently relax regulations on power plant pollution, thus leaving little federal guidance. Without rational federal policy in place, responsible state energy programs are now essential to protecting the planet and the health of our communities. Is Illinois prepared for this change? Two years ago, the answer would have been no. Back in 2016, the Illinois Renewable Portfolio Standards, the mechanism used to source

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August 24, 2018
In the Media

How to Pursue a Career Protecting the Environment

By Jen Walling Executive Director, Illinois Environmental Council While I’m sure 12-year-old me would be very proud of my current career (my friend Dorothy and I would stay behind after lunch to recycle milk cartons), I’m also certain I had no idea that advocating for the environment was a potential career option. As it turns out, it is a job, and I’ve been doing that job since 2011 as the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. In my role, I’m contacted by many students who are passionate about environment protection, and are considering making that passion a career in advocacy. I receive enough of these messages that I thought it would be worth writing down my best pieces of advice: Internships are just as important to determine what you don’t want to do as they are in determining what you want to do. As a high school and college

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July 10, 2018

IEC Announces League of Conservation Voters Partnership

Innovative Partnership to Hold Elected Officials Accountable and Elevate Environmental Issues Protecting Illinois’ environment is the focus of a new partnership launched today between the Illinois Environmental Council and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). This partnership will be used to hold decision makers accountable, put environmental issues front and center in the electoral process, and change the political dynamics that shape environmental policy in Illinois. “The Illinois Environmental Council has been working to protect Illinois’ environment in our state capitol since 1975. Partnering with the League of Conservation Voters, and the larger Conservation Voter Movement, will help the environmental community in Illinois increase our power to seek positive environmental change,” said Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jen Walling. IEC will work closely with LCV through an innovative partnership that will combine the power and resources of a national organization, with the community connections, local knowledge, and long-term approach of

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April 10, 2018

IEC Affiliate Interview: Environmental Defense Fund

IEC Interviews: Lavannya PulluveetilClean Energy Fellow, Environmental Defense Fund Meet LavannyaIEC: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. How did you come to work on policy issues related to clean energy access?Lavannya: I’m a recent grad with a degree in in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences as well as International Agriculture and Rural Development. I had the opportunity to work on a variety of community-driven initiatives in New York and internationally as an undergrad, and they all showed me the value of connecting people to resources available through local and federal governments. I became involved in policy issues related to energy access because I am hopeful about the work the Environmental Defense Fund is undertaking in Illinois. I was motivated largely by the focus on equity in relation to energy access, and I hoped that my previous work would lend itself to moving the needle forward on

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April 5, 2018

Staff Feature: Lindsay Keeney

By Lindsay KeeneyDownstate Outreach Director, Illinois Environmental Council You can’t protect something you don’t love. Nurtured in central Illinois creek beds that had a tendency to banish a nice pair pair of school clothes straight to the dirty clothes pile, I love water. Geography gifted me the chance play, fish and study water from an early age and my addiction to the outdoors and to water has yet to subside. Now, I work to protect it every day.I grew up in Ashland, Illinois with Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area practically in my backyard. I spent countless hours during adolescence exploring and wading in creeks, canoeing, and navigating the surprisingly complicated politics of farm pond fishing access. Fittingly, one of my very first jobs was working at the Jim Edgar Panther Creek Area. This was the first time I was immersed into the community of sportsmen. I

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December 18, 2017
Ammons Feature

Legislator Feature: State Representative Carol Ammons

IEC is excited to release our first “Legislator Feature” on our blog! Through this series, we hope to share with our supporters how legislators think about environmental issues, and what areas they are specifically interested in. For this entry, we are pleased to interview State Representative Carol Ammons. Representative Carol Ammons is serving her second term as state representative of the 103rd District, which includes Champaign-Urbana. Previously, Rep. Ammons served as a member of the Urbana City Council and Champaign County Board. IEC has been fortunate to work with Rep. Ammons on legislation to protect the Mahomet Aquifer, bolster local and sustainable food, and grow the clean energy economy. IEC is grateful to Rep. Ammons for taking the time to share her thoughts on environmental issues with IEC Legislative Director Colleen Smith: What is the most memorable environmental bill you’ve worked on?One of my first bills banned the dumping of

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November 27, 2017

Why the Race for Attorney General Matters for Environmentalists

By Jen WallingExecutive Director, Illinois Environmental Council I’ve never imagined an Illinois where Lisa Madigan was no longer attorney general. She has been an immutable figure on the Illinois political landscape for two decades, and a reliable decision-maker and partner on many of the environmental community’s campaigns. When embarking on a campaign, we begin by assessing potential opponents, allies, and other stakeholders. Perhaps it has been taken for granted that nearly every time we have performed this analysis over the past twenty years, we have been able to add the AG to the ally column. I am proud to say that I’ve personally worked with the staff of the attorney general’s office to keep lead out of children’s drinking water, petroleum coke out of people’s lungs, and animal wastes out of drinking water. We’ve worked to regulate high volume hydraulic fracturing, provide people with the right to file citizen suits,

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November 15, 2017