Riverkeeper Inc.

“Members participate in organization's governance at the annual membership meeting in june. They elect members to the board of directors.”

“At each membership annual meeting thereafter, a number of directors equal to that of those who terms have expired will be elected by a plurality of the members for a term of three years and the earliest of the election or appointment and qualification of such director's successor or until such director's death, resignation, or removal. At the expiration of any term of three years, any director may be elected. Candidates for election as directors will be nominated by the nominating committee. Members of the corporation who desire to nominate a member to the board of directors, in addition to those candidates proposed by the nominating committee, may do so on a petition signed by not less than one hundred members and delivered to the secretary of the corporation not less than six months prior to the annual meeting of the members. No more than one petition for election shall be accepted and therefore, if more than one petition is submitted, the submission with the greatest number of signatures will apply; in the case of a more than one petition with equal number of signatures, the petition first submitted will be accepted.”

“The president, treasurer and board chairman will review and approve the form 990 prior to filing.”

“On a yearly basis, the board of directors meet to complete a "conflict of interest" acknowledgement which documents and signifies that no current conflict of interest exists between the board members and outside organizations. At each subsequent meeting, before any decisions are made, it is clarified that there is no conflict of interest for anyone in the room. If there is a conflict, that person will be excluded from the decision.”

“Riverkeeper makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“Riverkeeper's mission is to protect the ecological integrity of the hudson river, and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water supply of new york city and the lower hudson valley. Through boat patrols, strategic partnerships, thousands of activist members and a respected legal staff, riverkeeper is restoring the hudson river and keeping contaminants out of the drinking water supply of 9 million new yorkers. Riverkeeper has helped to establish globally recognized standards for watershed protection, and serve as the model and mentor for the growing waterkeeper movement that include more than 260 keeper programs across the country and around the globe. Riverkeeper, for more than 40 years is new york's leading clean water advocate.”

“Legal program: riverkeeper's mission is to protect the environmental, recreational and commercial integrity of the hudson river and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water of nine million new york city and hudson valley residents. The legal program achieves these though litigation, comments on agency actions, and advocacy. Legal program staff current includes three attorneys, one scientist, two outreach co-ordinators, and a para-legal. These staff co-operate with other riverkeeper programs as needed to best achieve our shared goals. Current litigation and advocacy campaigns concern the need to: i) further clean up the hudson as a result of pcb pollution from general electric; ii) close the indian point nuclear power plant and then safely decommission it; iii) provide safe renewable power to replace that currently generated by indian point and fossil fuel power plants; iv) reduce combined sewage overflow and stormwater pollution throughout the watershed; v) improve the protection for new york city's drinking water; vi) eliminate the movement of crude oil on the hudson and reduce the movement of refined product; vii) prevent and remove toxics from drinking water; viii) prevent the siting of new polluting facilities that would discharge to the hudson or its tributaries; ix) provide a positive community vision for superfund clean ups. The legal program provides wide ranging support to other riverkeeper programs to advance the objectives of these campaigns. Our work continues to develop as new issues emerge, bur broadly we are dedicated to cleaning up past pollution and ensuring that new sources of pollution are prevented from further contaminating the hudson. In 2019 major victories included: i) defeating a proposal for an incinerator ash landfill; ii) induced the epa to acknowledge that it did not know whether the remedial action taken to date would sufficiently clean up pcbs in the hudson; iii) raising objections to the proposed storm barriers in the hudson river, which led to recognition that they were not the preferred option; iv) enforcing the requirement for polluting facilities to have stormwater permits and pollution prevention plans at multiple locations; and v) helping induce the abandonment of the constitution pipeline, which could cause pollution to scores of waterways that drain to the hudson.”

“Water quality program: riverkeeper's water quality program focuses on coordinating community science to gather water quality data from the hudson river and its tributaries, engaging grassroots and community-level partners in the protection of water resources, advocating for pollution reduction projects and programs locally and statewide, and advocating for protecting water - particularly drinking water - at its source through effective watershed management. While not exhaustive, these accomplishments demonstrate some of the impact of our work in this fiscal year: water quality monitoring: gathered over 5,000 water samples from more than 440 locations, working with more than 180 individuals and more than 75 partner organizations. Most data is reported via an interactive map at riverkeeper.org,and/or compiled in reports, including "how's the water? 2019," a poster detailing water quality patterns we have observed over 10+ years of monitoring. Statewide water quality policies: we advocated for spending on water infrastructure, contributing to $450 million in spending within the hudson river watershed announced by new york state in december 2018, and a commitment to add $500 million to spending statewide. We advocated for the adoption of regulations that will implement the drug take back act, which will expand takeback options for unused medications at pharmacies, and shift the cost of programs to the industry, rather than the taxpayer. Advocated for waterway-specific restoration plans: we served on the state's mohawk basin program steering committee, which drafted a new 5-year action agenda, including a clean water plan and source water protection plan for the river. We participated in drafting of the next 10-year hudson river estuary action agenda. We advocated for the state to initiate a clean water plan for the wallkill river. We worked with ngo partners to publish the comprehensive restoration plan for the hudson river estuary. Created or supported community organizing for water protection: we catalyzed the re-formation of the defunct rondout creek watershed alliance, supported both the hudson river watershed alliance and the wallkill river watershed alliance via board membership, and partnered with several other watershed groups to advance goals ranging from water quality monitoring to drinking water source protection planning through local land use regulations. Advocated for drinking water source protection: served as an advisory board member for the creation of the new state drinking water source protection program, which will help communities statewide plan to protect the quality of their drinking water supplies. We catalyzed the creation of the hudson river drinking water intermunicipal council ("hudson 7") and continued working with the city of newburgh, on drinking water source protection planning in those communities. We created reports for peekskill and ossining based on our drinking water source protection scorecard, and drafted a report for westchester county on drinking water source protection. We launched a campaign with the goal of getting the state to commit to updating watershed rules and regulations to protect drinking water sources for communities statewide.”

“Boat program: riverkeeper's patrol boat "r. Ian fletcher" maintains a near constant presence on the hudson river and its major tributaries between march and november each year, patrolling ny harbor, the hudson estuary, the mohawk and upper hudson each month and logging between 5,000 and 6,000 miles. The vessel has been modified to enable it to best serve its mission as a pollution watchdog monitor, a platform for scientific research and an ambassador for the river. While conducting regular pollution and sampling patrols we also provide support for scientific studies that advance understanding of the hudson's ecosystem, support riverkeeper's water quality monitoring program and bring local, federal and regional decision-makers, environmental enforcement agencies, academics, the media, and community stakeholders out to gain a critical perspective from the water. On these trips, captain lipscomb shares his deep knowledge of the river -- its wildlife, critical habitat zones, pollution sources and water quality management issues. The boat program is critical to riverkeeper's work and its role is unique on the hudson river estuary. In 2016, we commissioned and launched a second vessel, a 20' outboard. This vessel not only allows us to respond swiftly to emergencies but also enables us to work in hard to access areas and locations which the larger fletcher can not reach due to height or draft restrictions. Boat program also includes riverkeeper's restoration coordinator, a staff position dedicated to work on barrier removal and numerous other fish, wildlife and habitat restoration opportunities that are central to riverkeeper's mission. Some of our work in fiscal year 2019 includes: our patrols are a platform to identify and enforce environmental law violations and as a deterrent to would-be polluters. Our patrols in fiscal year '19 covered 6,000 miles, helped us identify enforcement and advocacy opportunities and collect more than 1,600 water quality samples on behalf of the water quality program taken by boat in the hudson estuary, mohawk river and upper hudson.. From these boat samples, we made nearly 22,000 measures of water quality (more than two-thirds of all measures made). Further work intended to drive policy/planning/regulation included helping to organize a regional coalition of public officials from seven municipalities along the hudson that rely on the river to supply drinking water to more than 100,000 residents. Through our partnerships in the area's official federal and state spill response committees (us coast guard area committee and epa-chaired regional response committee) we positioned the "hudson 7" to have a seat at the table at these meetings where important decisions regarding our preparedness to protect the hudson from a catastrophic spill are decided. It was the first that thousands of members of the hudson valley's public were represented as participants alongside their state and federal counterparts to lobby for better preparedness, funding and strategies to protect the estuarine ecosystem and the public drinking water supply from a spill. This, along with our successful efforts in recent years to amend the us coast guard's worst case spill scenario to involve a vessel collision outside of ny harbor -- shifting the focus instead to environmental impacts 100 miles upriver near kingston-- has resulted in a focus on the part of the coast guard to understand the communities needs upriver and has resulted in the planning of a broad based spill response exercise planned for this spring/summer. We continue to work with researchers from lamont doherty to collect and analyze microplastics in ny harbor in order to study the specific health impacts associated with their suspected role as a vector for pathogens. We think this research has the potential to drive regulatory changes aimed to reduce microplastics pollution in the nation's waters. Capt. John lipscomb is a founding member of the hudson river safety committe”