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Battles take place on, off river
(by K. Darius Amos - January 03, 2008)
Bill Sheehan and Hugh Carola will never object if asked to get down and dirty – it’s a responsibility the U.S. Coast Guard captains are more than willing to take.
But sifting through mud and muck along dirty riverbanks might not be Hackensack Riverkeeper’s mission of the day. As much time as the two spend aboard pontoon boats or launching kayaks into the river, Sheehan and Carola will double the hours meeting with Congressional leaders and arguing in courtrooms.
Sheehan, founder of Hackensack Riverkeeper, and Carola, program director, last week split time working on Capitol Hill and sailing in the Meadowlands. They also made a stop in Jersey City to promote environmental awareness during the Jersey City Boat Show.
“It’s a tough and busy schedule,” Sheehan said days before he and Carola caught a train to Washington D.C. for River Action Day, an annual event coordinated by the non-profit group American Rivers.
There, the captains joined clean water advocates representing dozens of conservation groups to push for cleaner water and increased protection for rivers throughout the country. Specifically, Sheehan and Carola met with congressional representatives, including those from senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez’s offices and Representative Steve Rothman.
According to Carola, he and Sheehan discussed additional ways to safeguard the state’s rivers and support other means to notify residents when sewage spills take place. They targeted legislators and urged them to support the Raw Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act of 2007.
If passed, the act would protect communities living along and downstream of bodies of water. In the event of a spill or intentional overflow of raw sewage into a local river or stream, residents in those areas will be notified immediately.
Boats, canoes, dialog
“Every time I’m on the river, I have my eye on things. I have a photographic image of what things are supposed to look like; if something’s out of order, it will stick out,” he said.
“What I see is important, but it’s just as important that I’m seen. Advocacy is this organization’s greatest tool.”
According to Sheehan, protecting the environment and the Hackensack River Watershed takes more than water patrol and stopping polluters. Much of Hackensack Riverkeeper’s resources, in fact, are directed at lawmakers and in the courts.
Sheehan and Carola are field experts — they can identify plants by sight, spot particular species of bird by their flight and most likely can smell rain hours before a storm arrives. But they’re experts in law, as well.
“We use our rights in courts to enforce environmental laws. We have the ability to step in with the Clean Water Act [1977],” he said.
“A good law will always last.”
The transformation of the Meadowlands from the open public sewer it once into today’s gold mine of living creatures is the direct result of strong legislation. Through education and expose to the lands, lawmakers in the 1970s realized the treasure that factories and other companies put in jeopardy when they freely dumped waste and sewage into the waters.
Laws that were put into effect soon after would be partly responsible for saving the 600 acres of Hackensack Meadowlands, an area of land Bergen County residents know as the Empire Tract. Saving the Empire Tract from development is one of Sheehan and Hackensack Riverkeeper’s ultimate victories.
For seven years, the Mills Corporation staked claim to the Empire Tract and planned to build one of the largest shopping malls on the East Coast. Despite Sheehan’s disapproval of the proposal, Mills continued its push to develop the site.
But through education and trips — many conducted by Hackensack Riverkeeper — throughout the Empire Tract, Mills’ opponents gained support from private citizens and communities, politicians, governing agencies and other environmental groups.
“New Jersey’s intention was to protect the wetlands,” Sheehan said.
“So Mills was smart and said ‘we have to re-think.’”
Mills eventually surrendered the Empire Tract, giving up its fight and allowing it to fall into permanent protection status. Mills picked another site adjacent to Continental Arena and was awarded a bid to develop it by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Ironically, Sheehan seven years earlier suggested the site was the alternative location to the Empire Tract.
“We’ve been successful with giving activism advice and finding out who polluters are,” Sheehan said. “But we also have had the ability to insert ourselves into situation and empower others.”
“We’re all about protecting the watershed, and more and more developers are getting it. We do what we can to protect it.
“And that’s what the public wants.”
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