WATERKEEPER  ALLIANCE:

PROMOTING GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT FOR CLEAN WATER

By: Casi Callaway, Eddie Scher & Gordon Rogers

From Satilla Riverkeeper website - Fall 2005

The Waterkeeper movement began on New York’s Hudson River in 1966 when commercial and recreational fishermen untied to save the river from industrial polluters.  In 1983, they hired the first full-time Hudson Riverkeeper to patrol thee river, restore its once abundant fisheries and lead citizen-based enforcement of environmental laws.  The early successes of Hudson Riverkeeper spurred an explosive growth of similar grassroots programs across the globe.

Everyone has the right to clean water.

Your local Waterkeeper is the defender of the river, lake, bay or shoreline in their community, patrolling the waterway and standing up to polluters.

Waterkeeper Alliance is the international guardian of more than 144 local Waterkeepers. The Alliance supports our members with legal, scientific and policy expertise and takes their clean water campaigns to the national and international level. Waterkeeper Alliance is the most effective protector of clean water because we act locally and organize globally.

The Waterkeeper model of grassroots action started on New York's Hudson River where a coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen mobilized in 1966 to reclaim the Hudson from polluters. They patrolled the river and used the winnings from anti-pollution lawsuits to hire the first full-time Riverkeeper 1983. To date, Hudson Riverkeeper has filed hundreds of successful legal actions against polluters and forced them to spend over $2 billion in remediation costs on the Hudson. The miraculous resurrection of the Hudson River has inspired the continuing creation of Waterkeeper programs throughout the world, each with their own successes in enforcing environmental law.

Waterkeeper Alliance is proud of the depth and breadth of our grassroots movement. Waterkeepers themselves come from such diverse backgrounds as veterans, commercial fishermen, community organizers, Native American tribal leaders, attorneys, businessmen, scientists, and professional resource managers. All walks of life, most religions and all political persuasions. Waterkeeper groups are successful because at their core they are working for tangible improvements in the waterbody that they love. Here are just a few examples of major program successes:

* 8,400 acres in the heart of the Meadowlands will remain natural wetlands because of New York/New Jersey Baykeeper and Hackensack Riverkeeper's successful fight against developers;
* Thousands of sewage spills will no long occur in low income communities because of Santa Monica Baykeeper's successful six-year lawsuit against Los Angeles, a lawsuit that was modeled on previous Waterkeeper suits in Atlanta (Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper) and Milwaukee (Milwaukee Riverkeeper);
* The killing of thousands of endangered sea turtles in Baja California will now stop because of Punta Abreojos Coastkeeper's work to capture Mexico's most notorious sea turtle poacher.

Waterkeeper Alliance works with our local programs to elevate cross-cutting issues into national and international campaigns. Here are short descriptions of three of those campaigns:

Clean Fisheries/Safe Seafood In 2004, Waterkeeper Alliance launched its mercury initiative to force improvements in federal mercury control policies and building public awareness. Fish consumption advisories plague our local waterways. People everywhere are being exposed to grave risks from the simple act of eating fish. Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, is particularly toxic to developing fetuses, infants and children, with 630 children born each year with unsafe levels of mercury in their blood according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) researchers.

EPA recently issued a mercury emissions non-control rule that will allow U.S. coal-fired power plants, the nation's largest source of airborne mercury, to poison our air and water resources for decades to come. Waterkeeper challenged the proposed rule in federal court and plans to force EPA to adhere to its mission to protect environmental and public health.

In the international arena we are using provisions of the NAFTA agreement to petition the treaty's international governing body to force mercury reduces from both U.S. and Canadian sources. In 2004 we asked this international Commission to investigate three large power plants in southern Ontario that were emitting high levels of toxins. In response to our submission, the Canadian government announced that they were shutting these plants down by 2008.

Outside of the legal arena, we are confronting the mercury problem with a grassroots approach that makes Waterkeeper unique among national environmental groups. In partnership with our member programs and the University of North Carolina, Waterkeeper Alliance has undertaken a mercury fish testing study and local source analysis to identify mercury contamination levels of fish from waterways across the country, and track the source of that mercury. By detailing, defining, and communicating the dangers of mercury contamination in fish, citizens will have the necessary information to take an active role in demanding clean up of polluted and make educated decisions about eating fish.

Over the past year, local member programs have been collecting fish samples in their watersheds around the country and submitting them for mercury analysis. In the Canoochee River in Georgia, six out of seven of the largemouth bass collected had at least double EPA's "safe" level of mercury. Our local Riverkeeper used this information to educate the public through local press. Our Savannah Riverkeeper, also in Georgia, received results indicating elevated levels of mercury in local fish tissue and has been using the results in a recently launched campaign to shut down a color-alkali (chlorine producing) facility that is contributing large amounts of mercury to his watershed.

Since 1999, Waterkeeper Alliance has focused on stopping the environmental and social devastation caused by large factory farms known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs. CAFOs cram thousands of animals into warehouse style buildings, creating one of the greatest sources of water pollution in the country. CAFOs contribute to the pollution of 129,000 river miles, 3.2 million lake acres, and more than 2,800 estuarine square miles.

We scored a major legal victory in February 2005 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that portions of EPA's Clean Water Act regulations for factory farms were illegal. Waterkeeper Alliance filed the lawsuit challenging the factory farm regulations in March 2003 with partners NRDC and Sierra Club. The Second Circuit agreed with us on several important issues. The court ruled that the regulations set up an illegal "self permitting" scheme that violated the explicit requirements of the Clean Water Act. As a result, the court directed EPA to revise the regulations. EPA must now require factory farm operators to develop nutrient management plans that are approved by state agencies, open to the public for review and comment, and incorporated into the terms of a factory farm's Clean Water Act permit. The court's decision significantly strengthens industry and state government accountability. It means citizens will have the ability to comment on an individual factory farm's waste control plan before it is issued a permit - no more secret permitting - and ensures that citizens have the information they need to hold factory farms responsible for complying with the Clean Water Act.

In addition, the court ruled that EPA must make sure that its regulations will directly reduce pathogen flows into surface and groundwater from factory farms. Pathogens, such as E. coli and cryptosporidium, are dangerous, disease-causing microorganisms that are concentrated in animal manure. EPA had argued that its regulations offered sufficient protection against this threat to human health because they "incidentally" reduced pathogens. The court disagreed and reminded the agency that the Clean Water Act requires it to select the best pollutant control technology for reducing pathogens. Incidental controls simply are not enough.

Our lawsuits against CAFOs that contaminate North Carolina's waters and to stop North Carolina from implementing a Clean Water Act permit for CAFOs that fails to protect the waters of that state from massive amounts of hog waste. These matters will be pursued to completion, and we will use its successes to tackle broader corporate agricultural practices such as pollution from industrial chicken farming and non-point source pollution.

Government Reform/Culture Change Good government and the rule of law are critical to water protection. We promote culture, laws, and institutions (civil society) that provide and promote citizen empowerment. We have and will protect the Clean Water Act and other federal laws from regulatory and Congressional rollbacks. The Alliance enforces enforcement, meaning that the Alliance will advocate for the vigorous enforcement of environmental laws by local, state and federal agencies charged with enforcement responsibilities.

Waterkeeper Alliance and your local Waterkeeper are fighting together for clean water and strong communities. That is who we are and what we do. Get on board with your local Waterkeeper group and join Waterkeeper Alliance. You, your family, and your descendents will be glad you did.