Pollution Enforcement - Press Releases

With a new governor coming to Albany and the Obama administration expected to announce plans shortly for its America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative—leaders of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson today unveiled an action agenda for how a federal-state-local partnership with business and nongovernmental organizations could help restore the region’s economy and enhance its quality of life to attract green businesses and jobs.

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Riverkeeper has filed a legal petition forcing the EPA to take action on a rule that sets the standards for how toxic cement kiln dust (CKD) is managed by cement producers around the country. This byproduct of cement manufacturing is often dumped into unlined landfills, and old quarries, causing toxic leachate to foul ground and surface water. The proposed rule was published in 1999, but due to unyielding pressure from the cement industry, has languished for nearly 11 years. As a result, no federal standards for CKD disposal exist today.

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Conservation and environmental groups today called on Governor David Paterson to stop anticipated staff cuts at the State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). According to sources at the DEC and the Division of Budget, 209 staff layoffs have been ordered by the end of the year.

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Tarrytown, NY – April 21, 2010 – Riverkeeper has filed two Notices of Intent to Sue for Clean Water Act (CWA) violations against the City of Beacon, New York and Village of Goshen, New York. These actions are part of Riverkeeper’s broader campaign to protect water quality in the Hudson River and its tributaries.

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For Immediate Release: September 24, 2009 Contact: Ramona Cearley 914-478-4501 x 235 [email protected] RIVERKEEPER SUPPORTS EPA’S PROPOSAL TO CONSIDER NEWTOWN CREEK FOR SUPERFUND STATUS Tarrytown, NY – Riverkeeper commends the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its announcement yesterday to propose listing Newtown Creek on the National Priorities List (NPL) as a potential Superfund site. Newtown Creek is a tributary of the Hudson and East Rivers, located between Brooklyn and Queens. Decades of industrial pollution and raw sewage overflows have rendered the Creek one of the most highly polluted waterways in […]

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For Immediate Release: September 16, 2009 Contact: Ramona Cearley 914-478-4501 x 235 [email protected] Water Pollution Campaign Combines Citizen Lawsuits and Coordination with Local Law Enforcement (Tarrytown, NY) Today, Riverkeeper announced the beginning of an enforcement campaign targeted at environmental law breakers on the highly polluted Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York. In the first wave of enforcement actions targeted at Canal polluters, Riverkeeper filed Notices of Intent to Sue against: 6th Street Iron and Metal, a scrap yard, for dumping metal, and debris into the Canal. Ferrara Brothers Building Materials […]

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(Tarrytown, NY) Riverkeeper has served the Accord Speedway with a notice of its intent to sue for continuously polluting a nearby stream and connected wetlands with turbid water, which Riverkeeper believes is laced with pesticides, anti-freeze, oil, grease and other petroleum products. Citing violations of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Riverkeeper is now preparing to file a case in federal court.

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LONG ISLAND CITY - Today, Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens), Chairman of the City Council Committee on Oversight and Investigations, and the environmental watchdog group Riverkeeper announced that the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will take legal action against NYCON Supply Corporation. The company has been allegedly discharging concrete waste illegally into the Dutch Kills, a tributary of the heavily-polluted Newtown Creek. The DEC's action comes shortly after Riverkeeper and Gioia announced their intent to file a lawsuit against NYCON. Newtown Creek, the site of a massive oil spill, is one of the most polluted waterways in the United States.

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