Riverkeeper - Press Releases

An expert panel of prominent environmental leaders from the region and around the country will convene today to begin an ongoing collaboration to strategize and plan a safer, cleaner, more prosperous energy future for the Hudson Valley in a discussion titled, Extreme Energy & The Fight For Our Future. Learn More

November 21, 2011 For Immediate Release West Trenton, New Jersey – Hundreds gathered today in front of the War Memorial in Trenton to say “Don’t Drill the Delaware” at a rally of various constituencies and organizations opposed to gas drilling in the Delaware River Watershed. The Rally was held at the steps of the building where the Delaware River Basin Commission was to hold a meeting on this same day to consider opening the Watershed to drilling and fracking. That meeting was cancelled on Thursday, apparently because the voting members … Learn More

The groups now call on the governor-elect to put at the top of his to-do list rebuilding New York’s devastated environmental agencies and restoring environmental funding. Learn More

Governor Paterson, through his henchman Larry Schwartz, fired Pete Grannis, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), allegedly for allowing the leak of an internal DEC memo that lays out in stark detail how further layoffs and budget cuts at DEC will decimate the agency and leave New York’s environment at risk. Commissioner Grannis was appointed DEC Commissioner in 2007, after serving decades in the State Legislature. Pete Grannis has worked to protect New York’s air and water, and public health throughout his career, and especially during his tenure as Commissioner. During Grannis’s tenure, the DEC improved its oversight of the Greenpoint, Brooklyn oil spill, worked to strengthen regulations on power plants’ cooling water intakes, and took action to protect Hudson River fisheries, such as American shad, from further decline. Learn More

Tarrytown, NY – July 8, 2010 – Riverkeeper announced today the appointment of Paul Gallay as its new Executive Director. Mr. Gallay was selected through an extensive executive search process after Alex Matthiessen announced he was stepping down from the position earlier this year. Learn More

Tarrytown, NY – March 22, 2010 -- Riverkeeper applauds the passage of the “Hudson River Valley Special Resource Study Act” by the House of Representatives on March 19, 2010. The Act would fund a federal study to assess whether the Hudson Valley should be made a unit of the National Park Service, in order to better preserve and promote the region’s outstanding natural, cultural, historic, recreational and scenic resources. The study area would stretch from Fort Edward, on the Upper Hudson above Albany, to the southern border of Westchester County. The Act was introduced by Congressman Hinchey on November 3, 2009, and co-sponsored by Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey and Congressmen Eliot L. Engel, Paul D. Tonko, John J. Hall, and Scott Murphy. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate on March 17 by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Learn More

New York's leading clean water advocate calls on Department of Environmental Conservation to open regulatory review process to public scrutiny. Learn More

HUDSON VALLEY – As the Quadricentennial Flotilla journeyed upriver, attracting unprecedented crowds to the Hudson River’s shores, leaders of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson gathered at the river’s edge in Poughkeepsie to announce goals for the Hudson Valley in the coming decade. This shared vision for protecting the region’s natural resources and connecting more people to these irreplaceable treasures is intended to create a legacy that will outlast this year’s celebrations. Learn More