Riverkeeper

File:Riverkeeper logo.jpg

Riverkeeper is an environmental non-profit dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It was the first "keeper" to be founded; today, there are over 150 "keepers" around the globe, all members of the Waterkeeper Alliance umbrella organization.

History

The Hudson Valley has long been considered the birthplace of the modern American environmental movement. In the 1960s a small group of scientists, fishermen and concerned citizens led by Robert H. Boyle, author of The Hudson River, A Natural and Unnatural History and a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, were determined to reverse the decline of the then-polluted River by confronting the polluters directly by using a never-enforced law, the Federal Refuse Act of 1899.

In 1980, after a 17-year legal battle spearheaded by Scenic Hudson and the Hudson River Fishermens Association, Consolidated Edison agreed to drop its 17-year fight to build a mammoth pump storage hydroelectric facility on Storm King Mountain that would have destroyed a major striped bass spawning area and other Hudson fisheries. This victory demonstrated how grassroots organizations could ensure the public of the right to clean water and unspoiled open spaces.

With that major victory and a string of other successful lawsuits, HRFA realized it needed a full-time river advocate to safeguard the Hudson River and communities that depend upon it from abuse. In 1983, HRFA launched a boat on the Hudson and inaugurated the Riverkeeper programs, headed by the second Riverkeeper, John Cronin (Thomas Whyatt had been the first, from 1973 to 1976). Later that year, Riverkeeper quickly received national attention when it discovered that oil tankers were regularly discharging toxic petrochemicals from their holds into the river then moving upstream to tank up with clean Hudson water to sell to the Caribbean island of Aruba. Fortunately Channel Four NBC newscameramen were on board to capture this event on video. Riverkeeper won an historic out-of-court settlement – which helped add to the endowment of the Hudson River Foundation founded as part of the Storm King settlement – and has since taken on over 300 additional environmental lawbreakers.

In 1990, a team of Riverkeeper attorneys took on developers and lackluster enforcement agencies to protect the reservoirs and streams that constitute the water supply for nine million New York City and Westchester County residents.

Current work

At any given time, Riverkeeper is involved with as many as 130 actions to protect the integrity of the river, its tributaries, the Croton watershed, or other waters that affect New York City’s water supply. These actions take the form of litigation; investigations; environmental review of development projects; citizen empowerment projects; regulatory review and comment; and local, state, and federal policy issues. In the past, Riverkeeper has successfully challenged the illegal activities of some of the largest and most notorious polluters, including Mobil, General Electric, Consolidated Edison, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the City of New York, and the New York State Department of Transportation.

Riverkeeper maintains a 36-foot (11-m) wooden patrol and research vessel, the R. Ian Fletcher, operated by the Hudson Riverkeeper, Alex Matthiessen and Boat Captain, John Lipscomb. Riverkeeper’s full-time presence on the river enables it to respond to and investigate new reports of illegal discharges, facilitate scientific research on the Hudson, and provide access to the river to its members, public officials, students and the media.

References

• Riverkeeper website
• Waterkeeper Alliance website