“The thing I love about what you do is that you do. You don’t just talk about it.”–President Bill Clinton
Editor’s note: Thanks to a grant from the River Management Society, Spokane Riverkeeper Rick Eichstaedt was able to make his way to the annual Waterkeeper Alliance conference in New York City in late June along with Gonzaga University’s Mike Chappell and Jennifer Ekstrom, the new Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper. The event commemorated the Alliance’s 10th anniversary and was held at the State University of New York’s Maritime College. Waterkeepers from nineteen nations attended the event to exchange information about their efforts to protect waterways around the globe. This year’s theme was climate change and green energy. The Spokane Riverkeeper is a member of the River Management Society. Here’s Rick’s report on the event.–tc
While I was lucky enough to attend last year’s conference in Seattle to learn more about what the Waterkeeper Alliance is really about, it was a new and rewarding experience to be with so many different Keepers from around the world as an actual Riverkeeper. Every one of the Keepers has amazing stories to share about their waterbodies and their efforts, and community efforts, to protect them. Not all the news is good. Part of what many waterkeepers share is a frustration with their state and national officials and their reluctance or flat unwillingness to get past politics in order to do “the right thing” to protect rivers, lakes, bays, and other waterways.
For many of us, the highlight of the five-day conference was the keynote address by President Bill Clinton. He praised the Waterkeeper Alliance for 
its involvement with issues at a community level.
“The thing I love about what you do is that you do,” Clinton said. “You don’t just talk about it. Your mission is important.”
Before Clinton spoke, Waterkeeper Alliance President Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warmed up the audience, urging Waterkeepers to continue the fight to enforce environmental laws.
“The problem is,” Kennedy said, “agencies become captive of industry. Laws don’t get enforced.”
President Clinton echoed Kennedy’s message. “If you have a law and you don’t enforce it, you don’t have a law.”
This was the message that resonated the most with me when I think about the lack of enforcement of environmental laws back in Spokane.
President Clinton took time to introduce the Clinton Climate Initiative. The initiative, he said, takes “a holistic approach, addressing the major
sources of greenhouse gas emissions” by focusing on three strategic areas: “increasing energy efficiency, catalyzing the large-scale supply of clean energy, and working to stop deforestation.”
The Waterkeeper groups participated in workshops, took a boat tour of New York Harbor with the Hudson Riverkeeper. The agenda included a variety of inspiring and educational speakers touching on a number of timely environmental and river management issues:
• Jon Carson, Chief of Staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality spoke about the Obama Administration’s agenda and water quality;
• Bill Reinert of the Advanced Technologies Group, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. spoke about peak liquids and the energy water nexus;
• Dr. James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, discussed immediate actions that must be taken to move beyond fossil fuels;
• Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and a leading authority on peak oil and peak coal, spoke about the “clean coal” myth and post carbon strategies;
• British Explorer Robert Swan, the first person to walk to the North and South poles, discussed sustainable living practices;
• Marjora Carter spoke about addressing poverty through green economic development;
• NOAA Ocean Service Assistant Administrator John H. Dunnigan discussed the importance of working together to solve ocean problems and the role NOAA scientific research plays in protecting water, coastal, and ocean resources
• NOAA Coastal Services Center Director Margaret Davidson spoke about the effects of global climate change on coastal areas.
The conference also provided an opportunity for the Waterkeepers to spend time with the Waterkeeper Alliance President, Robert Kennedy Jr.
Jennifer Ekstrom, the Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, and I had a great opportunity to share information about Inland Northwest waters with Bobby Kennedy while on a boat tour of NewYork Harbor. Kennedy has always been a legal hero of mine and it was great to chat with him about the challenges facing the Spokane River. Kennedy also shared stories about some of his whitewater rafting adventures, a passion we both share.
Conference speakers and Waterkeeper groups also discussed problems associated with stormwater pollution to water quality. In the coming months, our work here in Spokane will focus a lot of attention on addressing problems with storm water pollution into the Spokane River. The City of Spokane’s storm water system is the largest contributor of PCBs into the Spokane River.
The conference also provided an opportunity for local and regional Waterkeeper groups to caucus and discuss strategy to address important water quality issues. In addition to talking shop with Jennifer and Mike Chappell, I had an opportunuity to meet with other Washington Waterkeeper groups, such as the Columbia Riverkeeper and Puget Soundkeeper and other local groups such as the Silver Valley Waterkeeper. As a result of these meeting, we recently teamed up with the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and the Columbia Riverkeeper to call on the Washington Department of Ecology to abandon its plans to significantly weaken industrial storm water protections.
While the conference presented a lot of good information and networking opportunities, we had a lot of fun too. Mike and I enjoyed an afternoon sailing Long Island Sound with Karl Coplan, one of the co-directors of Pace University’s Environmental Law Clinic.
Attendance at the annual Waterkeeper Alliance conference is required of all Waterkeepers. We learned during the last day of the conference that next year’s conference will be in Baja. Okay, sometimes there are perks to being a Keeper.
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