It's amazing that with all of the proof at hand, legislators are still hesitant in passing pollution. Almost as if they ignore it, it will disappear. Thank you for all you do.

I have been supporting these environmental campaigns since the first US Earth Day in 1970. If not always monetarily at least by writing Senators and Representatives, Heads of Gov. Agencies, even the Presidents.
I've tried to stay informed on the issues and at least weigh in on the side of learning to properly utilize, protect and preserve the Earths resources within this Eco System we depend on to live.
It is disheartening that these issues have become such a tool for political craft. It remains very heartening that future generations continue taking up the cause and finding their collective voice, "speak truth to power" in defense of what truly matters.

Poor water and air quality effects everyone. Do the policy makers for the big corporations believe that they are somehow exempt?

The environment belongs to all who breathe, drink and eat - we the living, human, animal and plant. The efforts to protect the environment are more valuable than the actions of any Wall Street billionaire. Great praise to you!

It's your birth right and any one who makes a decision to pollute is personally responsible for it - not some faceless corporation but the people on the board who approved of the policy, made the decision and implemented the plan.

Glad your going to be there to represent us. I know you will do well doing. Thanks for all the things you do Duron.

Everyone is entitled to clean air!

We have many dirty industrial companies in the Richmond area -- Philip Morris, DuPont, Honeywell, and others. We need someone who can combat these seemingly omnipotent corporate legions. Thanks for standing up for our inalienable human rights.

Thank you for going to Washington and speaking out for clean air and water. This is an something that should not have to be fought for but unfortunately this just like all other environmental issues. It seem to take a back seat to energy companies that have the money to pay their way to do whatever they want.

Good luck,
Victoria

Clean air and water shoud be a fundamental right of all people everywhere.

Thanks so much for your work standing up for clean air and water for everyone. The earth is very precious and it should be everyone's priority to take care of what we all depend on for health and life.

Thanks, Duron. Make the folks in Washington notice us!
All of "we, the people" have a common need to breathe clean air and drink clean water in order to survive. This is so basic a requirement, it is amazing that those in power in our society have managed to put monetary profits ahead of even this. That even the welfare of their own families comes second.
Government is broken when it ignores the most primal needs of it's people in favor of paying back the supporters of political agendas.
We must stop raping our environment for temporary gains.

Hey, Duron, thanks for doing this. I'm just a neighbor across the border in Tennessee who'll be wishing you and all the other Clean Air Ambassadors well in your efforts to help Congress, EPA, et al see the light!

moved to Richmond in 1985, immediately Thank you for speaking out for us! I my asthma worsened. All of these production plants NEED to be fined in huge amounts of money for not cleaning up the smoke stacks that release any and all toxins fumes. I'm sure if that imposed upon them, they would try to pass it along to the consumer. However, if the fine was so high it would be so obvious to ALL and they would not be able to get away with it. This could actually create (finally) not just more jobs to the workforce, but GREEN jobs. We need environmentally sound ideas and products. This can bring forth a brand new era, it's just corporations HAVE TO STOP THINKING GREEDY AND THING GREEN! It's all a mindset.
Kathryn Frietsch
Glen Allen, Va

We should all be able to breathe clean air everywhere all the time.

I support you.

I'm a native of NYC who is living in Lynchburg, VA. When I was teaching at Newark College of Engineering during the 1960s, I commuted by bus from Manhattan. The fumes from the NJ chemical industry were so bad (before the Clean Air and Water Acts) that the bus driver and passengers choked on fumes and had tearing eyes. We all held handkercheifs over our mouths and noses - but with little effect because we needed face mask respirators designed to remove toxic fumes and to shield delicate eye tissue.
In Manhattan, marble statues had indistinct features because high acid content in NYC air was literally dissolving stone! (Marble consists mainly of calcium carbonate which disoves in acid.)
And stench and soot was everywhere in the city, even in parts of NYC boroughs distant from New Jersey, such as the Bronx where I grew up. The stench dissipated with Long Island Sound breezes on dry days and was less on Sunday (because of reduced demand for electricity from coal burning power plants and reduced chemical plant activity) . However, a yellow-brown haze usually obscurs the city (even today) when approaching by air or car. While air quality has vastly improved during my most recent (2003) three month stay in NYC, it is vastly inferior to air quality in Lynchburg, VA. Still yet,driving through NJ to reach NYC is always a "smelly" - but usually not eye tearing - experience.
Bottom line: We must press our own representatives to adequately fund and to NOT limit role of regulatory agencies (e.g., EPA). Congress must be responsible to health concerns of citizens and NOT to do the bidding of corporations who fund congressional campaigns.
Finally, send a few dollars to responsible environmental groups which represent us at congressional hearings.

Thank you! As an asthmatic and as a nurse for asthmatic children in Richmond, VA, I thank you again. There are very few days when I can safely open the windows in my home, and for growing children, it's worse. I remember hearing that the last clean air in the world was gone. What a testament to "progress". We must do better.

Thank you! As an asthmatic I thank you, and as a nurse for children with asthma, I thank you again. I remember hearing about 40 years ago that the last clean air in the world had disappeared. What a commentary on our so-called progress. We must do better.

Thank you!

Thanks for your hard work in helping to get clean air, which should be a basic right for everyone.

Clean air is essential for well-being for every living thing!
We all must refuse to accept the status quo. Government must stop corporations from externalizing massive pollution onto citizens and our environment.
Government must also help all of us to use resources more efficiently and carefully.
Thank you for speaking up to protect our most essential resources--clean air, water and soil.

Greetings,

Unless the rich want to stop living off our labours like the parasites they are, they will eventually have to face the fact that clean water, air, and soil are necessary for the survival of human beings. We can't work if we can't breathe, hydrate ourselves, or eat.

I know first hand the dangers of polluted air. My mother, her father, and all of his siblings, died of lung disease after more than 15 years of suffering. My grandmother and siblings suffered with asthma, and I have suffered with asthma and allergies as a direct result of industrial emissions. Yes, it's true. Corporations make more money when they don't invest in basic safety or environmental protections, and the people these policies profit can afford to live somewhere away from the pollution they cause and pay for fancy air systems to protect them from any that might end up in their air.

Someone tell me what makes that "right" again?

Keep fighting, Duron. And know that we'll be doing the same!

When I was a kid I suffered from asthma until I started high school. I still remember what it is like to have to struggle for each breath and to be the only kid on the block to have to stay inside on hot smoggy days when all the other neighborhood kids were out playing ball on the street in front of our house. I know I hear about a lot more kids having asthma today than 40 years ago when I fought to breath. Today I fear I would not be the only kid on the block who has to stay inside. Duron thank you for going to DC to tell our Senators and Representatives what it is all really about -- making it safe for our kids to breath and play. Tell them to side with our kids, not the big polluters who are trying to block the EPA from making them have to stop poisoning our air and hurting all of us. Bless you for what you are doing.

Thank you, Duron!

There are those who place corporate profits ahead of having clean water to drink and clean air to breath. I am so glad that there are people like you who are willing to represent the rest of us and fight against these greedy sobs. Thanks Duron.

I can remember, as a child, being able to open a window and take a breath of clean, fresh, sweet-smelling air. That opportunity is now rarely or not available. I miss it.
Air is the first need of humans to survive on a physical level, and, for those who are aware of it, also on a spiritual level. It needs to be free of contaminants, just as our thoughts need to be free of contaminants in order to lead a happy and productive life. This basic need is now being taken from us. Even the enclosed, filtered air inside buildings is not pure.

In addition, what is being done to the air is part of the destruction of the entire planetary ecosystem. Of what value the profits a few get from polluting if the system which gives them life collapses?

If legislation is set against clean air, food and water, how can Congress sleep at night?. The air in one polluted area will eventually drift to poison our air, and the polluted water will efffect the fish we eat and the water we need to sustain a healthy life. Where is the impetus read support for alternative energy and biousustainabilty? Are these unknown or disavowed because Congressional re-election bought by the greatest polluters in the USA. On that matter please refrain from buiding a mega coal plant in Hampton Roads, VA.. Thank you, Duron.

Thank you for taking this important message to Congress. Please be sure to mention that Virginia does not need the proposed huge dirty coal plant in Hampton Roads!

God, or whatever higher power, did not give humans dominion over all nature. Until we become stewards & protectors of nature, we'll continue to pour toxins into our air and water until even the wealthiest will come to understand we are poisoning our planet.

Thank You!

thanks Duron! It seems so simple: we all need clean air to live. Yet pollution seems to cause dillution of that fact.

I live...therefore I breathe.

Clean air is important to me because I breathe. I have lungs and I care they remain in good shape - and are not spoiled by other's negligence.

Thanks for your efforts Duron. As a life-long resident of VA, I am concerned about the pollution of our water and air. I really appreciate your work on behalf all of us to try to stop the decline in natural resource quality and safeguard a clean and healthy environment.

Thank you!

Well said, Duron

I think a single payer health system would refocus the government's attention on environmental health issues and make it imperative that the government prevent corporations from poisoning us with expensive chronic diseases and neurotoxins that make us stupid.

Virginia has some major environmental justice horrors going on. Surry coal plant, piles of coal ash, Wise coal plant, blowing up mountains, imposition of trash dumps, etc.

Dominion Power's energy plans are mired in bad investments in old technologies, narrowly focused engineering "solutions" and a fear of helping individuals attain efficiency, and independent energy sources like solar which could be linked to the grid. If we could connect the suffering and costs of negative health impacts caused by their horrendous planning, maybe Virginian's would take notice.

You're awesome for what you're doing. Thank you for representing hope in a clean, healthy planet.

Thank you Duron! As a resident of Central VA, I really appreciate your work. Best wishes.

Thanks for your help :) I really appreciate all you do!

We live in a Capitalistic country, and world for that matter, where profit margins rule everything, but if we're not going to protect the basics of life, (water, air, and land), profits become insignificant because life as we know it will be no more.

Thanks for all you do, Duron!

Paddling down the New River should not be a health hazard, but you are risking exposure to toxins. You can't eat more than two fish from the New a month due to cancer risk. The air around the Celanese plant near Narrows is choking at best, and there's one of the worst fly ash storage sites in Glen Allen. Let's get some stronger regulations to clean these guys up, and put the money behind renewables to make the Glen Allen coal fired power plant an unneeded antique.

Even the wealthy need clean air.

Our rain should not be brown. I hope you tell that story to our reps.

Thanks, Duron! Good luck in D.C.