® T RESPONDERS • CITIZEN ACTION • T RESPONDERS — and won.— and IN TEXAS, FLORIDA, THE AND ACROSS MIDDLE EAST, THE ARE WATERKEEPERS WORLD, THE CHANGEMAKERS WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES AND FOR THE PLANET. Diane waged a 30-year Wilson industrial against fight giant Plastics Formosa BE THE CHANGE CLEAN WATER • THE BLUE PLANET’S FIRS • CLEAN WATER WATERKEEPER WATERKEEPER 100% PCW PAPER VOLUME 14, ISSUE 1 2017 40 YEARS OF PEOPLE, PRODUCT & PLANET CONTENTS Volume 16 26 34 42 12 NEWS & UPDATES FEATURES 12: PUGET SOUNDKEEPER 26: NURDLES ALL THE WAY DOWN SENDS BIG PLASTICS Diane Wilson and her scrappy crew of volunteer citizen-scientists took on a PACKING polluting billion-dollar plastics company and, nurdle by nurdle, won. 34: RIVER OF MEMORY, RIVER OF HOPE 16: NORTH CAROLINA'S EcoPeace's Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian Waterkeepers are proving that WATERKEEPERS TO DUKE working together on water and climate security issues is critical to a better future ENERGY: CLEAN UP YOUR for all the region's peoples. COAL ASH MESS 42: POISON BLOOMS 23: IN PENNSYLVANIA, Florida’s waters are at a tipping point as phosphorus and nitrogen pollution and COURT SLAMS TOP COAL- climate change combine to create a perfect storm for the increasingly frequent ASH POLLUTER outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae and red tides. St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman and Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani are leading the fight against this 25: A WATERSHED WIN FOR growing scourge. CHINA'S QIANTANG RIVER WATERKEEPER The Sperry BIONIC® Collection Spun from plastic recovered from marine and coastal environments. #SperryForGood | sperry.com/bionic 4 Waterkeeper Magazine Volume 16 LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARC YAGGI PHOTO BY AMY NICHOLE HARRIS/SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO BY UPPER HUAI RIVER WATERKEEPER PHOTO BY UPPER HUAI RIVER WATERKEEPER PHOTO BY HALFPOINT/SHUTTERSTOCK THE WAY FORWARD When Richard Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act in 1972, he called protecting the waters they love, Waterkeepers also protect the For too long the fight for justice for our planet and the fight Yes, we can afford clean water. Yes, we can afford rivers and lakes the Act “budget-wrecking,” saying, “Legislation which would people who depend on those waters. for justice for all people have been seen as separate struggles. and streams and oceans that continue to make possible life on this continue our efforts to raise water quality, but which would do so For example, the Upper Huai River Waterkeeper installs water They are not. planet. Yes, we can afford life itself. through extreme and needless overspending, does not serve the purification systems in Chinese villages where industrial pollution is As protestors have marched throughout the U.S., and the world, Let’s not forget that lesson now. public interest.” so endemic, they’re called “Cancer Villages.” Since 2008, Upper Huai we at Waterkeeper Alliance are looking inward to see what we can do Wherever you are, I hope this finds you safe and well. And I’m In rolling back nearly 100 environmental regulations, the Trump River Waterkeeper staff and their partners have built 50 purification to deepen our commitment to racial justice. grateful to you, beyond measure, for continuing to fight for this blue administration is essentially making the same argument. And systems in 47 villages. Thanks to their efforts, more than 80,000 This has called for some hard conversations. planet and for all its people. they’re doing it at the worst possible time. Environmental health is villagers now have clean water. The cancer rate in those villages It has helped us to see, even more clearly, as we work through key to human health, and, as we’re tragically realizing now, a healthy has dropped by 90 percent over 10 years, falling from 330 cases per this time, that the illusion that the earth is separate from us, and population is the critical infrastructure our entire world economy is 100,000 people to 30 per 100,000. thus exploitable, is inextricably connected to the illusion that some built on. This is just one example of the work the women and men of the people are different from us and inherently disposable. Smog-choked air, dying rivers, and oil-soaked soil won’t help us Waterkeeper movement do every day, in virtually every part of the After Nixon’s veto, Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine led the rebuild our economies. That work will take all of us, and we’ll need to world. The stories in this magazine, about battling plastic pollution override effort, saying on the Senate floor, “Can we afford clean do it in as healthy an environment as possible. in Texas, tackling algal blooms in Florida, and working for solutions water? Can we afford rivers and lakes and streams and oceans Just one U.S. environmental regulation, the Mercury and Air to the water crisis in the Middle East, are all inspiring examples of which continue to make possible life on this planet? Can we Toxics Standard, averts up to 11,000 premature deaths in the country Waterkeepers taking on long odds for the health of their communities. afford life itself?” each year, preventing 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 asthma We’re all in the fight of our lives right now. I’d be remiss if I Congress overrode Nixon’s veto and we all got the answers to attacks annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. didn’t mention the struggle of Black people, Indigenous people, and Muskie’s questions in the decades of expansion and prosperity after Yet the Trump administration is chipping away at that very standard. people of color in the United States, and across the world, for justice the Clean Water Act became law in 1972. The answer was a clear and Protecting the environment means protecting human life. In and equality. ringing, “Yes.” 6 Waterkeeper Magazine Volume 16 Volume 16 Waterkeeper Magazine 7 CLEAN WATER • THE BLUE PLANET’S FIRST RESPONDERS • CITIZEN ACTION WATERKEEPER ® KEEP A WATERKEEPER AFLOAT WATERKEEPER ON THE COVER: Diane Wilson, the San Antonio Bay Estuarine WATERKEEPERMAGAZINE Waterkeeper, heads toward the giant Formosa Plastics plant, the polluter she fought for 30 years before her 100% BE THE CHANGE PCW PAPER Diane Wilson waged a 30-year fight against industrial giant Formosa Plastics — and won. final history-making victory. DONATE YOUR Photo by Tamir Kalifa VOLUME 180 Maiden Lane, Ste. 603, New York, N.Y. 10038 14 , ISSUE Design by BoyBurnsBarn/John Turner 1 [email protected] for questions or comments www.waterkeeper.org 2017 IN TEXAS, FLORIDA, THE MIDDLE EAST, AND ACROSS THE WORLD, WATERKEEPERS ARE THE CHANGEMAKERS WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES AND FOR THE PLANET. The official magazine of Waterkeeper Alliance MISSION: Waterkeeper Alliance strengthens and grows a global network of grassroots leaders protecting everyone’s right to clean water. Tom Quinn Editor BoyBurnsBarn/John Turner Art Direction Robert E. Murphy Consulting Editor Ellen Simon Contributing Editor Lindsey Muzzio Photo Editor Board of Directors Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Tonya Bonitatibus Mark Mattson Bruce Reznik PRESIDENT Casi Callaway Kris Moore Lessing Stern BOAT Glenn R. Rink Karl Coplan Cheryl Nenn Kent Weed Globally, the paper industry is the single CHAIR Waterkeeper Council Casi Callaway / CHAIR Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. David Prescott largest industrial consumer of water and the MOBILE BAYKEEPER ANACOSTIA RIVERKEEPER SOUTH COUNTY COASTKEEPER Tonya Bonitatibus Bill Lucey Bruce Reznik third greatest emitter of greenhouse gases. SAVANNAH RIVERKEEPER LONG ISLAND SOUNDKEEPER LOS ANGELES WATERKEEPER Kemp Burdette Mark Mattson Ted Ross CAPE FEAR RIVERKEEPER LAKE ONTARIO BOULDER WATERKEEPER WATERKEEPER Sejal Choksi-Chugh Mbacke Seck SAN FRANCISCO BAYKEEPER Patricio Chambers Mejía HANN BAYKEEPER GUAYLLABAMBA WATERKEEPER The FSC-certified Rolland Enviro 100 paper is Karl Coplan / TREASURER Theo Thomas PACE UNIVERSITY Cheryl Nenn LONDON WATERKEEPER MILWAUKEE RIVERKEEPER Paul Gallay Jason Ulseth chlorine-free and manufactured with biogas RIVERKEEPER Betsy Nicholas CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVERKEEPER WATERKEEPERS CHESAPEAKE Rashema Ingraham Hao Xin energy. This paper is certified by Ecologo BIMINI COASTAL WATERKEEPER Rodrigo de la O QIANTANG RIVER WATERKEEPER MAULE ITATA COASTKEEPER Sharif Jamil BURIGANGA RIVERKEEPER Kathy Phillips and by Smartwood for FSC standards which ASSATEAGUE COASTKEEPER Honorary Councilmembers promote environmentally appropriate, Bruno Monteferri MARAÑÓN WATERKEEPER Hugo Krispyn EDISTO WATERKEEPER socially beneficial and economically viable Trustee Council Glenn R. Rink, CHAIR John Paul DeJoria Ed Hubennette Laura & Rutherford Seydel David P. Ansel F. Daniel Gabel, Jr. Karen Percy Lowe & Kevin Lessing Stern management of the world’s forests. William S. Brennan Tom Gegax Lowe William B. Wachtel Gay Browne Grey C. Hecht Kris Moore Kent Weed Ann Colley Jami & Klaus Heidegger Heather Richardson Yvonne Zappulla Waterkeeper Alliance and Cascades Fine James Curleigh A. Judson Hill Howard Rubin Papers are proud to reduce the environmental Leadership Circle Amy Acker & James Geralyn Dreyfous Patrice Kirtley Kristie Pellecchia Carpinello Reverend Gerald L. Durley Bryan Koop Lewis Perkins burden related to paper production. Brian Acrish Mark Feuerstein Ilene S. Landress Bryce Perry Dr. Alan Andacht & Dr. Rafael Fogel Carrie Lee David Sager Michael Maher Barnaby Furnas Karen Lehner Nick Sangermano Gabriele Bertaccini Mylik Ganey Michael Leonczyk Sara & Hans Schiff Gordon Brown Kendis Gibson Chad Lowe John R. Seydel Emmeli & Dylan Bruno Neil Giuliano James Manfredonia Harper Simon Jason C. Chryssicas CC