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River monitor possible: groups 1. CRAIG ELLINGSON Setting up a river watchdog in the Prince Albert area is possible, say officials of a local environment group and a United States organization. However, both officials said it would take a firm commitment without having a relatively large population base. A three-hour meeting between Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, and 30 people representing environmental groups Sunday in Calgary resulted in some interest in setting up programs in Alberta for both the Bow River and the North Saskatchewan River. Kennedy is the son of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy who was assassinated in 1968. The Waterkeeper Alliance is an umbrella organization for 80 citizen-based watershed patrol groups across North and Central America. A waterkeeper is a full-time, privately funded, non-governmental ombudsperson whose special responsibility is to be the public advocate for a water body. The idea for the Waterkeeper Alliance goes back to 1966 when a group of fishermen in the state of New York formed a coalition to reclaim the Hudson River from polluters. In 1983, the first full-time riverkeeper was hired and by 1998 150 successful legal actions had been filed against Hudson River polluters. Gerald Regnitter, spokesman of the local Forest Fringe, said Wednesday the idea of having an independent overseer for the North Saskatchewan River is a good idea, but added the range of clout would have to be widespread to make an effective impact. "I don't know what kind of structure would do it, but if it was an ombudsman or someone with that kind of label, they would need to have some sort of inter-provincial clout," said Regnitter, who had not previously heard of the Waterkeeper Alliance. "You can't deal with these issues just on a local, municipal or even a provincial level. The watershed of the North Saskatchewan goes from the Rocky Mountains to Hudson Bay. The whole thing is impacted." However, Regnitter said such a program could be embraced here, given public support shown for environmental issues such as the PA8 power line. "We were incredibly impressed with the response that our campaign here did have," he said, adding 2,000 people had officially declared their protest against the line through tree adoption. "It got very little publicity. A lot of it was word-of-mouth and people talking to each other. "People do have concerns about the environment, I think a level of concern that our political leadership does not understand or appreciate. So maybe a little community can do something if the issues are somehow brought to public awareness." Murray Fisher, field co-ordinator for the Waterkeeper Alliance, said setting up a program in a region with a small population base is possible, but it can be difficult to raise enough money to hire a full-time riverkeeper. "It can be done with foundation money (and) it can be done with enough committed citizens," Fisher said in an interview from White Plains, N.Y., Tuesday. "But it's easier to find that support and it's more likely to find that support if you have a lot more people that know about the resource." He said cities such as Calgary and Edmonton "intuitively would make a lot of sense" as places to base a program because of the larger population. Still, some sparsely populated areas have seen some success, he said, citing a program in a rural area in southeast Virginia containing the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers that has been effective. |