News

NEW YORK – April 15, 2009 - A celebrity-filled guest list will add glamour and excitement to Riverkeeper’s Fishermen’s Ball, at Pier Sixty on the Hudson (Chelsea Piers, Manhattan) on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22. The evening will also feature an intimate live performance by Tony Bennett. Learn More

On April 14, Riverkeeper submitted comments to the Army Corps of Engineers, urging the Corps to deny a federal permit application to fill wetlands in the proposed Kent Manor development. The developer plans to fill wetlands on the property and wants to mitigate this impact by constructing wetlands adjacent to roads and other impervious surfaces without suitable buffer zones. Riverkeeper commented that filling existing wetlands and constructing wetlands near roads, without appropriate buffers, increases the likelihood that pollutants such as phosphorus will discharge into the Croton Falls Reservoir. Learn More

On April 9, Riverkeeper filed comments opposing a dredging project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would place approximately 150,000 cubic yards of highly toxic soil on Houghtaling Island in New Baltimore. New York has identified Houghtaling Island, one of the largest undisturbed parcels of land in the Hudson River estuary, as a critical habitat. Nevertheless, the Army Corps has used it for decades as a dump for dredged soil containing varying levels of PCBs, heavy metals, and other contaminants. Learn More

On April 1, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act provision governing cooling water intake structures does not forbid cost-benefit analysis when determining “best technology available” for power plants. The Court also ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may decide to not engage in such analysis. That’s good news for Riverkeeper, who is now looking to the Obama administration and EPA to revise the rule it wrote in February 2004 and to write new regulations favoring the preservation of fish and other aquatic life. Learn More

Riverkeeper is currently working with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to address concerns about proposed stream bank restoration projects in the Kensico Reservoir basin. Although the projects are designed to comply with water quality regulations and reduce turbidity in the Kensico, local residents have expressed concerns about the size and number of trees that will be cleared in order to implement the proposed projects. In April, Riverkeeper visited the sites with DEP officials. We will continue to investigate and monitor the situation in … Learn More

(Washington, D.C.) The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that cost-benefit analysis is not categorically forbidden by the Clean Water Act provision governing cooling water intake structures, but also that EPA has the authority to decide not to engage in such analysis. The Court, therefore, left it to the Obama-Jackson Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to decide whether and how to compare costs to benefits when it issues a new regulation for existing power plants. Learn More

On March 20, Riverkeeper joined The Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Newtown Creek Alliance, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), and Councilman Eric Gioia at Newtown Creek to discuss a new report that reveals the relationship between global climate change, corporate bankruptcies and the crisis of the federal Superfund toxic waste cleanup program. The report, "Superfund: In the Eye of the Storm", calls on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to add Newtown Creek to the federal Superfund National Priorities List and urges federal policymakers to support the reinstatement of "polluter-pays" fees, which expired more than a decade ago. Learn More

On March 18, Riverkeeper (RvK) submitted comments opposing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) review of the environmental impacts of Indian Point, which recommended relicensing the plant. Refuting NRC’s claims that the plant poses no significant public or environmental health threats, RvK's comments state that the plant kills more than a billion fish every year; its spent fuel pools are leaking radioactive water; it is vulnerable to terrorist attack; and, it is amassing thousands of tons of nuclear waste that will remain on the site for decades. Learn More

Today, Riverkeeper filed written comments with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging its assessment and conclusion that environmental impacts caused by Indian Point’s operation are not severe enough to prevent relicensing of the plant for 20 more years. The commission’s conclusion appeared in its December 2008 draft environmental analysis. Learn More