RFK Jr's Fight for Healthy Water Ways
RiverKeeper & the WaterKeepers Alliance
Bobby & the RiverKeepers
The primary organization in which RFK Jr. really began his career of environmental activism is a longtime New York river-protection organization known as Riverkeeper. During his 33 years with the organization he had a major role in the expansion of its effectiveness and influence. Serving for multiple decades as Riverkeeper’s chief prosecuting attorney, Bobby also expanded Riverkeeper’s mission around the globe when he founded the international umbrella organization Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999 – leading to the foundation of 300 other Riverkeeper type groups across six continents!
Riverkeeper is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the environment and in particular the waterways of New York’s Hudson River - the river itself as well as its tributaries and watersheds - from corporate polluters and other threats.
New York’s Hudson Valley is often seen as the birthplace of America’s environmental movement and Riverkeeper is one of the groups at the core of this genesis/rise. The Riverkeeper organization was founded in 1966 as the Hudson River Fisherman’s Association (HRFA) which was merged and renamed into Riverkeeper in 1986.
Originally created by a group of fishermen, scientists and other concerned citizens led by author and Sports Illustrated writer Robert H. Boyle, the HRFA-Riverkeeper sought to reverse the condition of the infamously polluted Hudson River.
The Hudson had long been treated as a free-for-all dumping ground by industrial polluters – destroying the livelihood of fishermen and harming the health of thousands more nearby families.
Recognizing that citizens had to step up if this deadly pollution was going to end the members of HRFA and early Riverkeeps took on corporate polluters and other offenders through advocacy and increasingly by citizen-powered law enforcement. Over the decades since, the group has been central to the massive improvement of the Hudson, becoming a preeminent environmentalist organization in the process.
Riverkeeper-HRFA really began to make big waves in the early ‘80s with the tenure of John Cronin and the group’s landmark $2 million legal victory against the Exxon Company. Cronin and other HRFA members caught the corporation depositing the petrochemicals, toluene, ethyl benzene among others into the river – right near a major drinking water intake no less! Pulling right along Exxon’s massive tankers, Cronin and crew were able to take samples of the water pollution.
Enter Bobby
After overcoming his drug addiction RFK Jr. dedicated himself to service and particularly to environmental causes. Beginning his work with the HRFA-Hudson River Fisherman’s Association in the early ‘80s Bobby became their prosecuting attorney in 1984 and then helped merge and re-brand the organization into Riverkeeper in 1986.
Throughout the 1980s RFK Jr worked doing grueling filthy evidence collection in the polluted Hudson itself and then using the collected evidence in the courtroom to ramp up the organizations legal work suing dozens of major polluters to take back the health of the waterway.
During RFK Jr’s time with the group Riverkeeper grew exponentially from a relatively small and locally centered advocacy association to a well-staffed and well-funded government influencing powerhouse with 300 international partner organizations.
“--- more about RFK Js work w Gatto to expand to WaterKeeper's Alliance - etc. and that evolution - background - etc. -
then more about his battle for NewYorks expansion- waterway filter-? systme billions saved - etc. $s that is
“...you led and inspired Riverkeeper to stay in it, for as long as it takes, to secure clean water and safe places to swim, fish and boat.:
- Joseph Boren, Chairman of the Board of Riverkeeper, Inc. in a letter to RFK Jr.
Under Construction
Riverkeeper’s last big activism effort during Bobby’s time there was to bring about the closure of the controversial Indian Point nuclear energy plant. It was widely considered the most dangerous industrial facility in the US – had already led to the annihilation of over a dozen species in the Hudson River and lingered as an ever present threat to the very existence of the 20 million New Yorkers living near by.
More recently and controversially, Riverkeeper has also opposed a New York hydropower plant dam that would have provided relatively clean energy but simultaneously would have had adverse environmental effects.
“...you led and inspired Riverkeeper to stay in it, for as long as it takes, to secure clean water and safe places to swim, fish and boat.:
- Joseph Boren, Chairman of the Board of Riverkeepr, Inc. In a letter to RFK Jr.
During RFK Jr’s time with the group Riverkeeper grew exponentially from a relatively small and locally centered advocacy association to a well-staffed and well-funded government influencing powerhouse with 300 international partner organizations.
During RFK Jr’s time with the group Riverkeeper grew exponentially from a relatively small and locally centered advocacy association to a well-staffed and well-funded government influencing powerhouse with 300 international partner organizations.