The Waterkeeper
Alliance traces its roots to the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association
(HRFA), an organization of recreational and commercial fishermen who came
together in 1966 to protect the Hudson River, the source of livelihood for many
of its members. In 1983, the HRFA hired a full-time Riverkeeper whose job was
to patrol the Hudson River to catch polluters, restore fisheries, and lead
citizens in enforcing environmental laws. The Hudson Riverkeepers were
successful not just in protecting the river from polluters, they were also able
to bring these people and organizations to justice and force them to spend
money and participate in the rehabilitation of the river they once polluted.
The Riverkeeper project of the HRFA has inspired other environmental
organizations not just in the US, but all over the globe to create similar
programs in their respective areas in order to protect the rivers, lakes, and
other bodies of water in their area. The increase in the number of waterkeeper
programs was rapid and so in 1999, the Waterkeeper Alliance was formed to help
support these programs.
The Waterkeeper Alliance promotes the use
of the Waterkeeper model to organizations that wish to start their own
grassroots water preservation programs in their area. The organization believes
that uniting all these different organizations and programs gives them a
stronger voice when it comes to pushing for reforms in public policy and
environmental laws, as well as in apprehending those who violate them. They
provide a wide range of support services for individual Waterkeeper programs
and connect different programs to each other, making them much more formidable
and more difficult to ignore. The organization also provides each Waterkeeper
program with the expertise it needs in different areas such as strategic
planning, law, science, communications and other areas that would help them
strengthen their programs.
