Welcome to Potomac Riverkeeper
We stop pollution & restore clean water in the Potomac & Shenandoah Rivers & all tributaries.
Potomac Riverkeeper, Inc. (PRK) is a non-profit organization that stops pollution and restores clean water in the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and tributaries through enforcement and community engagement. Our goal is to spread awareness of the pollution threatening our rivers and streams, and to use all means available to make them cleaner.
Our goals are shared by a wide variety of people. Across the watershed, commercial fishermen and fishing guides are losing their businesses, anglers are losing their hobby, and kayakers are losing their venue. And everyone is losing access to clean drinking water. These groups of people all want a cleaner Potomac, and many of them support PRK's mission. PRK works for everybody living, working, or playing on the Potomac. We invite you to become involved and help us make healthier rivers and streams a reality.
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Written by ALEX DOMINGUEZ
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Virginia will miss a deadline for filing its Chesapeake Bay restoration plan with the EPA and has asked for more time to make sure the governor fully supports the plan, an official said Wednesday.
Wednesday was the deadline for the six states to deliver their bay watershed implementation plans to the federal Environmental Protection Agency to meet goals under a strategy ordered by President Barack Obama.
However, EPA official Jon Capacasa said during a conference call that Virginia had asked for a couple of days and that the plan was expected Friday.
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Written by Sarah Hoye and Steve Hargreaves
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Bill Ely walked into his chicken coop with an empty five-gallon water jug.
The jug, punched with several finger-sized holes near the top to keep it from overflowing, was capped with a white plastic pipe. Using a garden hose fed from his water well, he filled the jug.
Leaning over the contraption, he flicked his yellow lighter above the pipe, and a blue flame appeared.
"I knew it [the water] went bad because we could light it," Ely said.
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Virginia will make construction site inspections a priority when the sites discharge sediment (dirt) into sediment-impaired waters.
"The move is common sense," Shenandoah Riverkeeper Jeff Kelble says. "It focuses resources and will help Virginia clean up its dirtiest stretches of rivers and streams."
Virginia woefully lacks site inspectors and, according to Kelble, the state’s top environmental priority should be protecting troubled waters from further harm.
Virginia now has six months to implement the change.
The news comes as Shenandoah Riverkeeper and Potomac Riverkeeper settle a legal challenge to the Virginia permit that regulates sediment at construction sites. Both Riverkeepers, along with a fisherman, were represented by Rick Parrish at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
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Written by Eliza Steinmeier and Michael Helfrich
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Over the past several months, environmentalists in the Chesapeake Bay region have been closely watching the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009, introduced by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland. The Cardin bill, as it is commonly known, is being offered as a way to clean up a watershed that has suffered for decades from industrial abuse and political ineptitude. It is being touted by some as the last great chance to save the bay.
Unfortunately, in its current form, this bill will end up doing more harm than good.
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Written by William Morrow
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Eddie Johnson's recent column would have us believe the farming community is a unified body acting as one. The reality is that farming is just as diverse a group as any other industry.
You have some good actors and some not-so-good actors. It doesn't matter if you are talking about doctors, mechanics or farmers -- some will go the extra mile voluntarily; others will only do the bare minimum.
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Written by Jeff Newman
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When Mauro Lanzisera, a part-time waterman, returned to his Broomes Island home July 2 after crabbing, he had a quarter-size cut on his left leg. Later in the evening, his leg hurt so badly that his wife took him to Calvert Memorial Hospital, where he was checked for a broken leg and sent home with instructions to return in two days, Lanzisera said.
Lanzisera's foot began to swell. When he returned to the hospital, a doctor who had treated Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans recognized the infection as one resulting from a bacterium called vibrio.
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