ENVIRONMENT
Riverkeeper celebrates 20th year
Published: November 22, 2009, 12:30 am
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What began 20 years ago with five people determined to clean up the Buffalo River has grown into one of the most powerful environmental watchdog groups in Western New York.
Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, the nonprofit devoted to preserving and protecting the region’s rivers, celebrated its 20th anniversary Saturday with a party and fundraiser in Pearl Street Grill & Brewery.
“It’s nice to be at an environmental event that’s happy,” said Barry Boyer, one of the founding members.
The organization had its roots in the 1980s, when the Environmental Protection Agency designated 43 toxic hots spots on the Great Lakes — the Buffalo and Niagara Rivers being two of them.
In 1989, five citizens—Boyer, Keith Martin, Lynda Schneekloth, Ken Sherman and Rep. Brian Higgins, who was on the Buffalo Common Council at the time — incorporated the nonprofit as Friends of the Buffalo River, a catalyst to clean up the river.
Schneekloth recalled some of the early cleanup efforts and the garbage and debris that was pulled from the river.
“There was no life in the river at all,” Schneekloth said. “What the river looks like now is so clean compared to what it looked like in the beginning.”
Over the years, volunteers and staff grew, the name changed and the focus broadened.
But the group remains committed to restoring the ecological health of Buffalo Niagara’s waters, improving public access along the rivers and encouraging more awareness and stewardship from the community.
The challenge ahead is finding a solution to the sewage and storm-water overflow spilling into the region’s waters, said Julie O’Neill, executive director of the nonprofit.
But a huge achievement is expected to be realized late next year, when the remediation of contaminated sediments is expected to begin, a job that will cost tens of millions of dollars and take three to five years, O’Neill said.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been two full decades,” Boyer said Saturday. “The way this organization has grown is just terrific.”
jrey@buffnews.com
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