Confronting climate | Restoring nature | Building resilience annual journal HUDSON RIVER RISING Riverkeeper leads a growing movement to protect the Hudson. Its power is unstoppable. RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL 01 Time and again, the public rises to speak for a voiceless Hudson. While challenges mount, our voices grow stronger. 02 RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL PRESIDENT'S LETTER Faith and action It’s all too easy to feel hopeless these days, lish over forty new tanker and barge anchorages allowing storage of crude when you think about the threat posed by climate oil right on the Hudson, Riverkeeper is working with local partners to stop disruption and the federal government’s all-out another potentially disastrous plan to build enormous storm surge barriers war on basic clean water and habitat protection at the entrance to the Hudson Estuary. Instead, we and our partners are laws. Yet, Riverkeeper believes that a better fighting for real-world, comprehensive and community-driven solutions future remains ours for the taking. to coastal flooding risks. We think it makes perfect sense to feel hope- History was made, here on the Hudson. Groundbreaking legal pro- ful, given New York’s new best-in-the-nation tections were born here, over half a century ago, when earlier waves of climate legislation and its record levels of spend- activists rose to protect the Adirondacks, the Palisades and Storm King ing on clean water (which increased by another Mountain and restore our imperiled fish and wildlife. These founders had $500 million in April). This year, The Empire State also banned river-foul- no playbook and certainly no guarantee of success. All they had was cour- ing single-use plastic bags; proposed tougher drinking water standards; age, good science and a sense of responsibility. and began a massive new statewide biodiversity program, which will ad- Can we, like the advocates before us, face down mounting challenges vance many of Riverkeeper’s “Living River” campaign goals. Plus, the first and win our own battles for clean water, a livable climate and a Hudson of the two outdated and increasingly dangerous nuclear reactors at Indian teeming with life? The odds become stronger with every new tributary Point will close in the Spring of 2020; the other will close a year after that. protection group formed, every additional dollar spent on clean water and As great as all these state laws and initiatives are, they’re not the biggest every Hudson-threatening project rejected by government regulators. reason Riverkeeper remains confident. That reason is you, and all the other We can’t and won’t falter, now, with the stakes this high and momentum advocates and supporters with whom we work. still growing. As we rise, though, Riverkeeper needs to stand on the shoul- Everywhere we look, local advocates have risen to protect their drink- ders of our founders and, even more importantly, count on our community ing water, fight climate change, foster biodiversity and build resilient wa- partners and supporters like you. Together, there’s no stopping us. terfronts, as they did in Catskill, where Riverkeeper helped the commu- nity beat back a planned incinerator ash dump threatening ruinous levels of toxic pollution. Fresh from recent victories like the one in Catskill, and our success in defeating the tug and barge industry’s drastic bid to estab- Paul Gallay, President & Hudson Riverkeeper COVER PHOTO ©BRANDON PIDALA | PIDALAPHOTO.COM; PHOTOS BY JOHN LIPSCOMB (FACING PAGE) AND LEAH RAE PAGE) (FACING LIPSCOMB JOHN BY PHOTOS | PIDALAPHOTO.COM; PIDALA ©BRANDON PHOTO COVER RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL 1 ACHIEVEMENTS A Year of Victories 404 LOCATIONS monitored for 5,000 water quality 1 NAUTICAL TOXIC MILES ASH DUMP patrolled blocked in Catskill 23 31 BILLION TONS OF TRASH PLASTIC BAGS removed from targeted by the Hudson and its New York ban DANGEROUS tributaries by 2,400 NUCLEAR PLANT volunteers shutting down by 2021 $2.88 10 MILLION HANGING $500 for oyster reefs 5,021 HABITATS WATER MILLION in Hudson River Park installed on NYC's SAMPLES secured for Clean Water Estuarine Sanctuary Newtown Creek infrastructure taken 2 RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL PAGE) (FACING REMEIN (LEFT) AND LEAH RAE LEFT), CHRISSY (FAR UZAN GILLES BY PHOTOS CONTENTS Annual Journal 2019 - 2020 1 President’s Letter A River Rising 24 Events 2 A Year of Victories 14 Act locally for clean water 28 Gratitude and appreciation 4 Riverkeeper Patrol 16 Healing the river: A new urgency 31 Financial Report 8 Achievements 18 Shoring up: How to adapt without harming the Hudson 20 Pursuing the vision: Waters rebounding with life in NYC 22 Power shift: A new commitment to clean energy RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL 3 WATCHDOG NEW JERSEY In April, thanks to a report from a diligent watchdog, we reported a discharge of firefighting foam FIRST MATE This year we welcomed into the Hudson near the George Wash- Batu (@RiverkeeperDog on Instagram). ington Bridge. New Jersey’s investigation When we’re under way, he often sleeps resulted in a notice of violation and fines next to my chair at the helm, or on the against the Port Authority of NY & NJ engine box. When we stop along the river, for intentional discharge, during training he wants to meet everyone. Literally, activities, of some 800 gallons of foam everyone. He’s a true ambassador and a and water into a ditch that drains to the wonderful companion, a joy to have along. Hudson. Public watchdogs matter! I love him so much. 4 RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL ON THE WATER Riverkeeper Patrol WATCHDOG John Lipscomb, Patrol Boat Captain MANHATTAN In July we received this photo of a dead sturgeon surrounded by plastic trash and a dead eel. It appeared to have a head The patrol boat is Riverkeeper’s presence on the river, on behalf of the injury, possibly from a spinning pro- river, logging more than 5,000 nautical miles a year from the Mohawk peller. This scene brings our eyes and Upper Hudson down the Estuary to New York Harbor. The boat back to the challenges we still face. We’re a long way from coexisting provides a deterrent to polluters, a platform for research, and a means with a living river, a wilderness riv- of educating and connecting with the public. It also carries a steady er, so essential to so many species. FURNACE BROOK George We need to keep trying. reminder: This river needs keeping. Jackman, Ph.D., police lieutenant turned aquatic ecologist, is work- ing to remove dams in the Hudson Valley as Riverkeeper’s Habitat Restoration Manager. I’m so proud MOHAWK RIVER We so appreciate that Riverkeeper is evolving this our relationship with SUNY Cobleskill. way. We’ve never had this kind In October, Professor Barbara Brabetz of expertise in-house before. Our and President Marion Terenzio, Ph.D. landmark success in 2016 with (at right) and Professor Neil Law, Troy and DEC – the first dam Ph.D., came aboard. It’s so validating removed for fish passage in the and empowering to have Riverkeeper’s Hudson Valley – has landed us effort recognized this way. When we this talented “fish.” began patrols here in 2015, I spoke at a Mohawk Watershed Symposium about our hope of finding community partners to work with. We could not effectively do this work alone. Brabetz, professor of chemistry and biology, stood up in the audience and said, “I’ll be a partner.” We’ve been gathering water quality samples monthly ever since. PHOTOS BY LEAH RAE (FACING PAGE), STEPHANIE FACCINE (LEFT) AND DAN SHAPLEY (LOWER RIGHT) (LOWER SHAPLEY (LEFT) AND DAN FACCINE STEPHANIE PAGE), (FACING LEAH RAE BY PHOTOS RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL 55 ON THE WATER NEWTOWN CREEK, NYC When we started patrols here in 2002, we were the only ones. Our patrols resulted in numerous cases, from cement plant discharges to the largest underground oil spill in the nation – a fight against ExxonMobil. They also helped inspire the formation of Newtown Creek Alliance, and its citizen patrols by Willis Elkins and others. It’s a legacy that I’m extremely proud of. Newtown Creek isn’t alone anymore. A brighter future for this terribly abused waterway is assured. VERRAZZANO NARROWS, NEW YORK HARBOR We were pleased to have New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer aboard in September. We’ve been working very hard to inform and engage the public about the disastrous notion of building storm surge barriers here, across the mouth of the Hudson River – and MOHAWK RIVER An essential part to call for better, more comprehensive flood protections that of our patrols here are SUNY Cobleskill would not harm the river (P. 18). To understand the tidal exchange students like Alyssa Giacinto, from the between the river and the Atlantic, and what it would mean to Lower East Side of Manhattan, and restrict the flow through the Harbor, you have to be on the water. Christopher Syphertt, from Laurelton, Queens, who come aboard to assist water quality sampling. I appreciate their youth- ful interest and energy. 6 RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL PAGE) (FACING BAUTISTA AND DARRYL WATTS LEFT), SUSAN (LOWER LIPSCOMB LEFT), JOHN (TOP LEAH RAE BY PHOTOS Photographer Darryl Bautista captured this image of our boat southbound as we were going under the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie. I’m about to begin my 20th year with Riverkeeper, and in some ways, the job of patrolling the river continues to feel new. Every day, there's a beautiful sense of mission as the boat and I set out. For me, when I'm on the water, I feel hopeful that we can win. RIVERKEEPER JOURNAL 7 On the Wallkill River, Riverkeeper works closely with local partners to restore this major tributary of the Hudson.