News - Press Releases

OSSINING, N.Y. — Riverkeeper is extremely troubled that the NRC has announced its imminent approval for the sale of the Indian Point Energy Center to Holtec International without addressing its contention, and the numerous serious concerns raised by local, state, and other interested groups. This approval puts the public at risk by transferring responsibility for Indian Point’s decommissioning to a company that lacks integrity, experience, and financial stability. Since the NRC has once again neglected its responsibility to properly scrutinize Holtec’s qualifications, Riverkeeper calls upon New York State to step in to […]

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Plan outlines the mission, goals, vision and core values needed for future success   With new plan in place, Paul Gallay to end his 11-year run as President and Hudson Riverkeeper in June Riverkeeper, looking to build on its 55-year history of fighting to reclaim the Hudson River and ensuring that over 10 million New Yorkers have clean, safe drinking water, has adopted a new Strategic Plan, which articulates a new mission, vision and core values. Riverkeeper’s new Strategic Plan is both a recommitment to the ideals that have historically […]

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Environmental and community organizations have sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo urging him to sign legislation that would extend environmental protections for 41,000 miles of streams across New York State. The letter highlights the urgent need for the legislation to become law in response to the Trump Administration’s rollback of the Clean Water Act’s Clean Water Rule. The rule change targets headwater streams and wetlands creating a potential gap in protections for tens of thousands of stream miles in New York. The bill, if signed, will extend the Department of Environmental […]

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Climate change is happening. It has increased the temperature of the Hudson River by four degrees Fahrenheit, and the river level by one foot over the past 100 years. The river and its communities are already experiencing more intense storms, water quality impacts, and ongoing sea level rise — all of which are predicted to continue to get worse over time.

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Ongoing delay of law’s implementation threatens to exacerbate the opioid epidemic amid the Covid-19 pandemic Continued flushing of unwanted drugs endangers water quality across the state Albany, NY—A broad coalition of environmental, product stewardship, public health, solid waste management, local government, and fishing organizations recently sent a letter to the New York State Department of Health (“Department”) calling for final regulations and implementation of the NYS Drug Take Back Act within 30 days (see letter attached). The law requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to fund a statewide drug take-back program that provides […]

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NYS is attempting to walk back protections for water recreation that were established in 2015. ALBANY, NY — Riverkeeper, represented by the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, filed suit late yesterday to prevent the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation from attempting to roll back human health protections for recreation in New York City’s waterways, initially established by regulation in 2015. The 2015 water quality standards for swimming and other “primary contact recreation” would require the state to set scientifically accurate sewage pollution limits for the City’s waterways. To meet […]

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Three Troy students will focus on community science and radio and podcast production to illuminate water issues that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Troy, N.Y. – Media Sanctuary and Riverkeeper announce the launch of the “Water Justice Lab.” The three-year project based at Media Sanctuary in North Troy will establish a water quality sampling lab and train students in both laboratory science and media arts skills in order to focus on environmental justice issues in the Hudson River Watershed. Three Youth Scientist Fellows from Lansingburgh High School, […]

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Riverkeeper applauds the DEC’s decision and urges the agency to maintain its position in the event of an appeal. RENSSELAER, N.Y. — Riverkeeper applauds the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for its decision this week to deny two essential permits for a proposed waste processing facility that would sit on top of a capped toxic waste site next to the Hudson River – and urges the agency to maintain its position in the event of an appeal. The Department of Environmental Conservation has denied both the Air State […]

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Re-posted from Rensselaer Environmental Coalition. For immediate release: August 12, 2020 Contact: David Ellis, Chairman, Rensselaer Environmental Coalition dellis@rensselaerenvironmentalcoalition.org On November 26, 2019, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent a letter to outgoing Rensselaer Mayor, Rich Mooney stating that the DEC “has grave concerns regarding what appears from a review of the SEQRA record for this Project to be a wrongfully abbreviated environmental impact assessment that the City of Rensselaer undertook.” In March 2018, Rensselaer Resource Recovery LLC, applied to the Rensselaer City Planning Commission for approval […]

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