"Water, water, everywhere..."
By Lawrence M. Brooks
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RIVERKEEPER Lynda Schneekloth
Photo by Jim Bush. |
With apologies to Samuel Coleridge, Western New Yorkers face a dilemma similar to that of his Ancient Mariner, surrounded by water they cannot use freely. For different reasons, though: the Mariner because of salt, Western New Yorkers because of pollution and limited access. The Buffalo River runs brown from toxin-poisoned sediment, the Niagara River daily absorbs tons of toxic metals dumped legally, Woodlawn Beach closed twenty-two days during the summer of 2004 because of bacteria and sewage contamination, the New York State Health Department advises eating virtually none of the fish caught below Niagara Falls because of toxins and tumors, and a citizen’s walk along the waters is blocked in many places by private property.
Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER has a mission to change all that.
In 1985, the EPA identified forty-two hotspots or Areas of Concern (AOC) in the Great Lakes basin including the Buffalo and Niagara Rivers. RIVERKEEPER President Lynda Schneekloth says, “At that point the Buffalo River was a mess.” In 1987, a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for the Buffalo River was put together by scientists and activists. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was supposed to form a committee to implement the RAP, but instead the same activists who had formulated the RAP organized a citizens group—the Friends of the Buffalo River—to advocate for their plan. Back then there were a lot of environmental organizations, but there was a vacuum for place-based organizations. Friends of the Buffalo River was then, and still is, the only non-governmental group to manage such a plan.
In 2001, the group expanded to include the Niagara River and became the Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers. The Niagara River already had its own RAP, but no advocacy group. (The binational Niagara River Toxic Management Plan has remediated most of the river’s point source pollution, but regulated discharges of industrial waste into the river are permitted. [“Dilution as the solution to pollution is crazy to me,” says Schneekloth.] The regulated discharges could exceed the river’s capacity for self-healing.)
In the fall of 2005, Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers affiliated with the international Waterkeeper Alliance—cofounded by Robert Kennedy, Jr. and John Cronin—becoming Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER.
In partnership with DEC, the group built the country’s first urban canoe trail. In partnership with Erie County, they created urban habitat restoration sites such as the one at the foot of Smith Street. Recently, when the New York Power Authority relicensing process began, several groups—business power users, a coalition consisting of surrounding communities, Native American nations—formed to advance their own interests. Environmental groups were unorganized and represented by unpaid volunteers. RIVERKEEPER took the initiative to organize those groups and then was asked to negotiate on their behalf.
Back to the Buffalo River: in the summer of 2005, sediment samples were taken from the river. Final data collection and analysis is complete and a consultant is formulating a remediation strategy. This year there are three priorities: complete a feasibility study for environmental dredging, work on securing funding for cleanup (in May, Congressman Brian Higgins secured $200,000 in Federal funds for this), and work on connecting points on the river to the Greenway. Other good news: the Valley Community Association has received a loan to purchase property for a new public park along Ohio Street.
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The Buffalo River
Photo by Jim Bush. |
Generally the Buffalo River’s health has improved greatly since the sixties and seventies but not much since the nineties. RAP Coordinator Jill Jedlicka says, “It’s stuck where it is because of sediments and still has a way to go.” But, she says, the group is steadily making progress toward the goal of delisting the River as an AOC by 2020.
For the past fifteen years, the group has been running important semiannual events, the Shoreline Sweeps. In the spring it’s coordinated with Earth Day and in the autumn with the Great Lakes Beach Sweep and the International Coastal Cleanup; the next one is September 15-16. Thirty-three site captains supervise thirty-seven sites scattered within twelve municipalities. This spring’s sweep had over 1000 volunteers who came solo or in groups such as families, students, and faculty from local schools, political action groups, government agencies, fishing and sporting groups, and retail businesses. With the help of many sponsors who provide supplies and volunteers, the group furnishes materials such as bags, gloves, T-shirts, first aid kits, rakes, brooms, and refreshments. (For a listing of sponsors and volunteer groups see the group’s web site.) Although most of the litter is everyday stuff (the most common things are cigarette butts and packaging), some interesting items are a time capsule, a box of human ashes from a crematorium, and a birthday cake intact except for one missing slice.
Who are the culprits? Volunteer coordinator Robbyn Drake says, “All of us. The average person tossing things out the window, carelessly putting garbage on the curb and it gets blown away. When you do this cleanup you become aware that all your garbage winds up downstream when you throw it out—it doesn’t disappear.” Schneekloth adds, “We believe there’s this place called ‘away’ to which we throw things.” Volunteers do this, says Drake, “because ‘somebody else’ won’t do it.”
Another major volunteer activity is a watchdog program called Riverwatch. It assigns volunteers a certain area of the watershed to monitor—on a regular basis—things such as: spills, litter, other water quality problems, sewer overflows, public access, and habitat and wildlife, initiating action where necessary. It grew out of the cleanup program when site captains wanted to do more. Launched last November, it is now up to thirty-seven captains who receive manuals and training at monthly workshops conducted by a variety of local agencies such as the US Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, and others. They have formed a partnership with Niagara University to do water testing.
Why RIVERKEEPER? Acting Director Margaret Wooster says, “The only consistent caretakers of our water are the people who live on it. The agencies, their people come and go, their interests change. There has to be somebody who consistently watches out for our water.”
Why should the reader care? Most importantly, for your own health. Clean water is the most important thing. Wooster says, “Our brains are seventy percent water, babies are ninety percent water.” Right now we have clean water because it’s treated, but Wooster says, “Drinking water treatments are not equipped to protect us from all the contaminants that go into the water.” Schneekloth adds, “We don’t measure everything, such as pharmaceuticals.” Endocrine disruptors are suspected for dropping human sperm count—down fifty percent worldwide since WWII—and for drastic reductions (as much as ninety percent) in males born in gull and amphibian populations. “There’s a whole new level of pollutants we don’t even measure that are going to be causing problems in future human populations,” says Schneekloth.
Wooster adds, “From a selfish standpoint, whether or not you care about the fish or the bald eagle, it’s essential to get the best quality environment for you to live in.” The environment is porous and we’re part of it. Quality-of-life is impaired and we are limited in what we are able to do safely.
RIVERKEEPER’s goals for the future include clean water, public access, Niagara Greenway planning, building a “Civilian Corps” of constituencies, making sure that the Outer Harbor is a green waterfront for the city, and storm water management. (Storm events cause raw sewage to pour out of combined sewer overflows.)
Just over one percent of the water on the earth’s surface is usable; one fifth of that is on our doorstep. The Niagara watershed drains an area approximately equivalent to that of France, Belgium, and the former West Germany combined. Although vast to the eye, its supply is not inexhaustible: ninety-nine prcent of the water is the result of glacial melt and not renewable. Schneekloth says, “Remember you live in a community that very few people on the face of the earth can experience. How blessed we are to live in this amazing place.”
Lawrence M. Brooks is a writer living in Buffalo. For further information about RIVERKEEPER, visit their web site, www.bnriverkeeper.org, or write or contact their office: 617 Main Street, Suite M108, Buffalo, NY 14203, (716)852-RIVER (7483).
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