The Riverkeepers Book

A modern-day David and Goliath tale, The Riverkeepers is an impassioned firsthand account by two advocates who have taken on powerful corporate and government polluters to win back the river they love. John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., report from te frontline of environmental activism, the Hudson River Valley, to tell us how we too can fight and win by reclaiming a fundamental right that dates back to the Magna Carta - the right to defend and enjoy our invaluable natural resources.

Once an inspiration to writers and artists and a rich source of livelihood for fishermen, the Hudson River by the 1960s had been transformed from a national treasure into a national joke. Giant coporations and federal, state, and local government had turned the river into their own private sewer. Six years before the first Earth Day, fishermen organized an unprecedented blue-collar campaigns that confronted polluters with their crimes. They fought to protect the river for the sake of humanity - fort its ability to enrich communities economically, spiritually, and culturally. Out of this activism grew Riverkeeper, the organization that has helped restore the Hudson and inspire a nation.

Drawn together from very different backgrounds, John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are Riverkeeper's energetic leaders. John was born in Yonkers into the first generation of children who couldn't swim in the Hudson because of pollution. Later he rediscovered the river as a commercial fisherman and went on to become its celebrated advocate, the Hudson Riverkeeper, tracking down and investigating illegal polluters. Bobby at an erly age developed an ardent appreciation for the natural world. His father taught him steadfast commitment to the democratic system, which he brought to his work as cheif prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper.

Revealing shocking stories of commonplace environmental crime - from drinking water tainted with hospital waste to fish populations contaminated by freely dumped PCBs - John and Bobby describe their dramatic confrontations with more than ninety environmental lawbreakers. They vividly recount the hands-on investigations, the grounbreaking court battles, and the courageous local heroes that characterize their mission to bring to justice some of the world's most powerful institutions.

Interweaving the personal, philosophical, and political, The Riverkeepers is a timely call to action that will resonate across America as the backlash spearheaded by congressional leaders and their major corporate allies threatens to reverse the hard-won victories inthe environmental law and policy. It is an eloquent and essential reminder that environmentalism is really about defending democracy and our most basic rights as citizens.

JOHN CRONIN is a former commercial fisherman who was appointed Hudson Riverkeeper in 1983. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and lives in Garison, New York, where he serves as vice president of his local school board. ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., is cheif prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, Inc., and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. As a law professor, he surpervises the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University's law school in White Plains, New York. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, and Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. He lives in Mount Kisco, New York.

The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right, John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Scribner Press, New york, 1997, 302 p.