2005 Waterkeeper Annual
Conference
East Stroudsburg Pennsylvania
Once a year, Waterkeeper programs gather from
around the world for a strategic planning and training conference. In June,
Delaware Riverkeeper hosted 137 Waterkeepers in the upper Delaware River
in Pennsylvania, near the Delaware Water Gap. On the first night each
Waterkeeper program described their biggest challenges and successes
of the past year. Here are the Waterkeepers and photos from throughout
the four-day event.
1. Brian Van Wye, Anacostia Riverkeeper
Washington, DC
2. Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
3. Jimmy Orth, St. Johns Riverkeeper
Jacksonville, Florida
4. Linda Schweitzer, Oakland University
5. Ted Wilgis, Cape Fear Coastkeeper
Wilmington, North Carolina
6. Derrick Evans,
Turkey Creek, Mississippi
7. Jay Charland, Assateague Coastkeeper
Berlin, Maryland
8. Thomas Byrne, Waterkeeper Alliance
9. Larry Baldwin,
Lower Neuse Riverkeeper
New Bern, North Carolina
“We have been able to put down a nutrient-trading fiasco largely
because of grassroots efforts. Everyone from high
school kids all the way up to several municipalities on the river signed up to
support us. Never underestimate what can happen when you get grassroots involved.”
10.
Erick Bozzi, Cartagena Baykeeper
Cartagena de Indias, COLOMBIA
11. Anne Brasie, Grand Traverse Baykeeper
Traverse City, Michigan
12. Javier Villavicencio, Punta Abreojos Coastkeeper
Punta Abreojos, Mexico
13. Chris Navitsky, Lake George Waterkeeper
Bolton Landing, New York
14. Tim Maloney, Wabash Riverkeeper
Indianapolis, Indiana
|15. Pete Nichols, Humboldt Baykeeper
Eureka, California
16. Doug Martz, St. Clair Channelkeeper
Harrison TWP, Michigan
“We just found out that 37 chemical companies on the river, including
Shell, Dow and Union Carbide, have
had 700 spills over the last 14 years into the water that 6 million people drink.
We have been able to get $2.5 million to monitor quality at all our water plants
up and down the river so we can track down polluters and ensure that no one can
get away with this anymore.”
17. Joe Payne, Casco
Baykeeper
South Portland, Maine
18. Fred Evanson, Humboldt Baykeeper
Eureka, California
19. John Nelson, Grand Traverse Baykeeper
Traverse City, Michigan
“Globally, one of the biggest threats that I see is the WTO, globalization
and the commodification of water.
Twenty percent of the surface fresh water on the planet lies in the Great Lakes
Basin, and a thirsty world craves it - so we’re working hard to protect
it.”
20. Peter Patterson, Ciudadanos
Preocupados
La Paz, MEXICO
21. Paul Sinclair, Waterkeepers
Australia
Carlton, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
22. Fred Kelly, Severn Riverkeeper
Annapolis, Maryland
23. Charles Scribner, Black Warrior
Riverkeeper
Birmingham, Alabama
24. Chandra Brown, Canoochee Riverkeeper
Swainsboro, Georgia
25. James Holland, Altamaha Riverkeeper
Darien, Georgia
“We’ve had a victory for water quality in our forested wetlands.
A Georgia logging
company has agreed to restore contours, fill ruts and install best management
practices on a 500-acre site of damaged forested wetlands in the Oconee River
flood plain.”
26. Leo O’Brien, Baykeeper
San Francisco, California
27. Layne Friedrich, Lawyers for Clean Water
28. Greg deBruler, Columbia Riverkeeper
Bingen, Washington
29. Sejal Choksi, San Francisco Baykeeper
San Francisco, California
30. Mary Beth Postman, Waterkeeper Alliance
31. Bill
Schultz, Raritan Riverkeeper
Keasbey, New Jersey
32. Mark Mattson, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
33. Brent Walls, Chester Riverkeeper
Chestertown, Maryland
34. Neil Armingeon, St. John’s Riverkeeper
Jacksonville, Florida
35. Alex Matthiessen, Hudson Riverkeeper
Tarrytown, New York
“We’re battling Exxon, which is responsible for the largest
underground, urban oil spill in the country. Methane gas is coming up, affecting
workers and homes. Fish life is almost nonexistent in New Town Creek, principally
because of the oil spill. Exxon has gotten away with this for 50 years and our
state environmental agency has turned a blind eye, but Hudson Riverkeeper is
staring right at them.”
36. Bouty Baldridge,
Cape Fear Riverkeeper
Wilmington, North Carolina
37. Cathy Ramsdell, Casco Baykeeper
South Portland, Maine
38. Richard Ayers, Virginia Eastern
Shorekeeper
Eastville, Virginia
“A regional public service authority planned to build a $10 million
combined sewage system for a rural area, but based on our challenges, the public
service authority instead disbanded and reformed under a new charter which now
allows citizen participation.”
39. Sue Sanderson, Waterkeeper Alliance
40. Bruce Reznik, San Diego Baykeeper
San Diego, California
After a five-year battle, local
regulators have issued a tentative
cleanup order for sediments contaminated
with arsenic, cadmium, chromium,
copper, lead, mercury, tributyltin
and PCBs in San Diego Bay. The
draft order would require a $96
million cleanup of 885,000 cubic
yards of contaminated sediment.
41. Kira Schmidt,
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper
Santa Barbara, California
42. Ed Merrifield, Potomac Riverkeeper
Rockville, Maryland
43. Ricardo de Soto, Puerto Rico Coastkeeper
San Juan, Puerto Rico
44. Jill Gravender, Environment Now
Santa Monica, California
45. Karl Coplan, Pace Environmental Litigation
Clinic
White Plains, New York
46. Kathy Ogle, Translator
47. Clarke Kahlo, Wabash
Riverkeeper
Indianapolis, Indiana
48. Gretta Siebentritt Tovar, Translator
49. Doug
Chapman, Fraser Riverkeeper
Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA
“The 900 mile Fraser River has the largest salmon runs of anywhere
in North America, but before they get to the Fraser, they have to pass by Victoria
which has no sewage treatment.”
50.
Cate
White, Waterkeeper
Alliance
51. Paul Orr, Lower Mississippi
Riverkeeper
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
“Initially we sent notices of intent to sue under the Clean Water
Act to 12 facilities and industrial municipalities. All the suits were
settled and resulted in millions of dollars of improvements to their
industrial operations. Fines were collected, totaling over $300,000 – those
funds were distributed to local non-profit environmental
organizations in the state.”
52.
Carl
Larson, Upper
St. Lawrence
Riverkeeper
Clayton, New York
53. Terry Backer, Long Island Soundkeeper
East Norwalk, Connecticut
54. Maya van Rossum, Delaware Baykeeper
Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania
“This year a catastrophic spill from a tanker dumped 265,000 gallons
of heavy Venezuelan crude oil into the Delaware Estuary. We mobilized more than
100 citizens to monitor the devastation and cleanup – their
information
helped
inform
response
efforts
and
will
ensure
that
those
responsible
are
held
fully
accountable.”
55.
Richard
Smith, Puget
Soundkeeper
Seattle, Washington
56. Hamp Shuping, Waccaman
Riverkeeper
Conway, South Carolina
57. Mike Mullen, Choctawhatchee
Riverkeeper
Troy, Alabama
58. Grayal Farr, Apalachicola Riverkeeper
Eastpoint, Florida
59. Greg Hunt, Waterkeepers Australia
Carlton, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
“In the last year, we’ve had our first law suit, and we won.
It’s amazing what Waterkeepers Australia is doing with other community
groups because we’re no longer an abstract concept, we’re
real.”
60.
Linda
Sheehan,
California
Coastkeeper
Alliance
Fremont, California
“We are truly a state-long alliance and we’re bringing the
Waterkeeper name to Sacramento by sponsoring four bills to overhaul the state’s
water
quality
laws.”
61.
Charlotte
Cherry, Galveston
Baykeeper
Galveston, Texas
62. Meredith Brown, Ottawa Riverkeeper
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
“Every single politician in Ottawa drinks the water out of the
Ottawa River. It flows through the capital of Canada, but they don’t
seem
to
care
about
the
sewage
being
dumped
in
the
river,
the
44
dams
preventing
fish
to
pass,
the
radioactive
plume
in
our
river
from
an
old
nuclear
site,
nor
the
degradation
that
comes
with
large-scale
development.”
63.
Charlotte
Wells, Galveston
Baykeeper
Galveston, Texas
64. Daniel LeBlanc, Petitcodiac
Riverkeeper
Moncton,
New Brunswick,
CANADA
“We had a grand vision of restoring fisheries in our river. No
one believed it. But if you ask anyone around our town now, or our watershed,
everyone knows it’s
happening.”
65.
Cindy
Medina, Alamosa
Riverkeeper
Capulin, Colorado
66. Casi Callaway, Mobile
Baykeeper
Mobile,
Alabama
67. Tom
Ford, Santa
Monica
Baykeeper
Marina del Rey, California
68. Dean Naujoks, Upper Neuse
Riverkeeper
Raleigh, North
Carolina
69. Drew Koslow,
South Riverkeeper
Annapolis, Maryland
70. Steve Fleischli, Waterkeeper Alliance
71. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Waterkeeper Alliance
72.
Kathy
Urffer,
Hackensack Riverkeeper
Hackensack, New Jersey
73. Michelle Smith, Humboldt
Baykeeper
Eureka, California
74. Sally Bethea, Upper Chattahoochee
Riverkeeper
Atlanta, Georgia
“Last November, Upper Chattahoochee River won a major national
precedent setting victory on anti-degradation. The Georgia Supreme Court rejected
a permit that our state had issued to discharge 40 million gallons of treated
sewage into our drinking water reservoir. Now we’re
working
on
a
permit
with
the
strictest
phosphorus
limit
in
this
country.”
75.
Janice
Harvey, Fundy
Baykeeper
St. Andrews, New Brunswick
“We’ve launched an environmental justice campaign to implement
anti-slapp suit legislation. We call it eco-justice and hopefully in
two years we’ll
have
an
Environmental
Bill
of
Rights
in
New
Brunswick.”
76.
Bob
Gallagher,
West/Rhode Riverkeeper
Shady Side, Maryland
77. Donna Lisenby, Catawba Riverkeeper
Charlotte, North Carolina
“We’ve taken on oil companies, we’ve taken on the corporate
hog industry. This year I thought it was about time we took on the world’s
largest
retailer,
Wal-Mart.
It
resulted
in
all
the
Wal-Marts
in
our
area
cleaning
up
illegal
and
birth-defect
causing
pesticides
and
herbicides,
which
had
been
placed
outdoors
to
leak
into
drinking
water
supplies.”
78.
Lee
Oxenham,
Patapsco Riverkeeper
Ellicott City, Maryland
79. Laura Calwell, Kansas
Riverkeeper
Lawrence,
Kansas
“Our biggest enemies are the commercial sand and gravel dredgers
in the Kansas River. Last week one of the dredgers said, ‘I feel
like I have a big bull’s eye painted on my back.’ I’m
here
to
say
that
he
does.”
80.
Cindy
Wallace,
South Riverkeeper
Annapolis, Maryland
81. Janelle Robbins, Waterkeeper Alliance
82.
Helena
Kralova, Morava
Riverkeeper
Brno, CZECH REPUBLIC
“We focus on river restoration – if we were as good in river
restoration as we were at playing hockey, there would be no problem.”
83.
Liz
Reznik,
San Diego Coastkeeper
San Diego, California
84. Rae Schnapp, Wabash RiverkeeperIndianapolis, Indiana
85. Heather Jacobs,
Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper
Washington, North Carolina
86. Duffy Kopriva, St. Johns Riverkeeper
Jacksonville, Florida
87. Ken Cloutier,
Canadian Detroit Riverkeeper
Windsor, Ontario, CANADA
“As Canadian Autoworkers interested in the environment, we didn’t
know anything about the Waterkeeper Alliance until R.F.K., Jr. came to speak
to us at a conference in Toronto. Out of the Canadian Autoworkers, we decided
to start Canadian Detroit Riverkeeper. Right now we are setting up an
international monitoring program to get the Federal Governments on both sides
to sponsor 24/7 monitoring.”
88.
Lorraine
McCartney, Raritan
Riverkeeper
Keasbey, New Jersey
89. Karen Lehner, Waterkeeper Alliance
90. Earl Hatley, Grand Riverkeeper
Vinita, Oklahoma
“We’ve been fighting a poultry company called Moark who supplies
eggs to Wal-Mart. They came into my county, and we chased them out. They
went to Kansas, but they were still on our watershed. So we chased them
out of Kansas and they went to the Spring River, but that’s still
on our watershed. So then we chased them out of Spring River and they
went to the middle of Kansas, but that’s still on our watershed.
So we chased them out of there and they decided to go back home to Missouri
to build their facility, but it’s
still
on
our
watershed
and
they
are
in
real
trouble
because
they
have
a
whole
slew
of
violations.”
91.
Robert
Burns, Detroit
Riverkeeper
Melvindale, Michigan
“This has been a tremendous year for the Detroit Riverkeeper and
the Friends of the Detroit River, culminating in the official transfer of ownership
to the Fish and Wildlife Service of 450 acres of coastal wetland in the lower
river. This was a ten year battle that saved this important wetland
from development and added it to our Detroit River International Refuge.”
92. Scott Edwards, Waterkeeper Alliance
93. Lauren Brown, Waterkeeper Alliance
94. Nelson
Brooke, Black Warrior
Riverkeeper
Birmingham,
Alabama
“We’ve basically forced our state to reevaluate their entire
penalty methodology, so we’re
hoping
to
see
stronger
penalties
and
bigger
sentences
for
our
polluters.”
95.
Kevin
Stinnette,
Indian Riverkeeper
Ft. Pierce, Florida
“It’s been a grueling year for us, three hurricanes in three
weeks. We’ve been keeping the program going even though we had
to cancel many fundraisers. Our board and our membership is in disarray with
tarps on their roofs. We’re heading into a hurricane season
right now, but we’re
going
to
come
back
strong.”
96.
Andrew
Willner, New
York/ New Jersey
Baykeeper
Keyport, New Jersey
“Last year, like the 15 years before, we’ve been fighting
against the commodification of water by polluters and developers. We’ve
been
arguing
that
water
is
our
public
legacy
and
our
public
trust
and
have
been
speaking
to
power
on
behalf
of
the
bay.”
97.
Bob
Shavelson,
Cook Inletkeeper
Homer, Alaska
98. Beverly Braverman,
Youghiogheny Riverkeeper
Melcroft, Pennsylvania
99. David Whiteside,
Black
Warrior Riverkeeper
Birmingham, Alabama
100. Frank Tursi,
Cape Lookout Coastkeeper
Newport, North Carolina
101. Mati Waiya, Ventura Coastkeeper
Oxnard, California
“In the past year, we’re happy to announce that we were successful
in a lawsuit against a major development. Not only did we protect endangered
species, but we were also able to protect our sacred sites that are important
to our Chumash culture.”
102.
Jeff
Salt,
Great
Salt Lakekeeper
Salt Lake City, Utah
“We have the highest mercury concentrations ever found in a North
American waterway. We suspect that our mercury is not coming just from coal-fired
power plants, or chlorine producers – but
from
gold
mines
in
Nevada.”
103.
Bill
Sheehan,
Hackensack
Riverkeeper
Hackensack, New Jersey
104. Wendy Steffensen, North
Sound Baykeeper
Bellingham,
Washington
105.
Sue Joerger,
Puget Soundkeeper
Seattle, Washington
106. Amy Bates, Commencement
Baykeeper
Tacoma,
Washington
107. Cheryl
Nenn, Milwaukee
Riverkeeper
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
108. Theo Thomas, London Canalkeeper
London, England
“Our biggest enemy is the pessimism of the few that say that things
can’t
change
and
the
media
that
perpetuate
that
myth.”
109.
Kincey
Potter, South
Riverkeeper
Annapolis, Maryland
110. Victor Otruba, Upper
Susquehanna Riverkeeper
Mansfield,
Pennsylvania
111.
Clarice
Rudkowski,
Grand Riverkeeper
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador,
CANADA
112.
Paul
Otruba,
Upper
Susquehanna
Riverkeeper
Mansfield, Pennsylvania
113. Lisa Ryan, Hackensack Riverkeeper
Hackensack, New Jersey
114. Doug Michael, Waterkeeper Magazine
115. Gordon
Rogers, Satilla Riverkeeper
Waynesville, Georgia
“Our biggest enemies at the moment are a poisonous combination
of greed and ignorance, which is everybody’s
problem.
In
our
watershed
it
expresses
itself
as
corporate
timber
and
corporate
farms.”
116.
Fernando
Ochoa, DAN
Encinada, MEXICO
117. Pablo Uribe, Mexican
Environmental Law Center (CEMDA)
Mexico City, MEXICO
118. Mark Martin,
Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Birmingham, Alabama
119. Francisco
Ollervides, Magdalena
Baykeeper
Punto San Carlos, MEXICO
120. Frank Carl, Savannah Riverkeeper
Augusta, Georgia
“The Savannah Riverkeeper, with the aid of the Southern Environmental
Law Center, has at least temporarily thwarted a potentially precedent-setting
decision in the courts which would allow companies to dam our local streams
and fill our
ponds with mining waste.”
121. Erin Fitzsimmons, Waterkeeper Alliance
122. Kevin McAllister, Peconic Baykeeper
Riverhead, New York
“We became owners of 300 acres of bay bottom in Peconic Bay. This
dates back to a century ago when oyster lands were sold off for oyster cultivation,
and now they are back in good hands. We will use these lands for the repopulation
of shellfish
throughout the Bay .”
123. Jeffrey Odefey, Waterkeeper Alliance
124. Eileen McLellan, Chester Riverkeeper
Chestertown, Maryland
125. Murray Fisher, Harbor School
New York, New York
126. Dean Wilson, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper
Plaquemine, Louisiana
127. Robert Benefial, Grand Riverkeeper
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador,
CANADA
128.
Dave Yearsley,
Petaluma Riverkeeper
Petaluma,
California
129. Rick
Dove, Waterkeeper
Alliance
New Bern, North Carolina
130. Eddie Scher, Waterkeeper
Alliance
