History of the Waterkeeper Movement

Our story started in 1966 when commercial and recreational fishermen, many of them veterans, united to save their river and formed the Hudson River Fishermen's Association. These fishermen recognized that outspoken, citizen-led advocacy was the only way to ensure that laws were enforced and their river, livelihood and the health of their families were protected. They took on many of the nation's biggest industrial polluters and won. 

In 1983, they hired the first full-time Hudson Riverkeeper to patrol the river, to restore its abundant fisheries and to lead citizen-based enforcement of environmental laws. Since those early days, Hudson Riverkeeper has brought hundreds of polluters to justice and forced them to spend hundreds of millions of dollars restoring the Hudson to health. 
Their success spurred an explosive growth of similar grassroots programs across the globe, and in 1999 Waterkeeper Alliance was founded to support these programs.

Today, Waterkeeper Alliance is among the world's fastest growing environmental organizations, with nearly 200 Waterkeeper Organizations patrolling rivers, lakes and coastal waterways on six continents. Our proudest accomplishment is the depth and breadth of our member organizations and the unity of their vision for clean water and strong communities.

Waterkeeper Alliance strives to expand our movement to 200 member organizations worldwide by 2010, including targeted efforts in Canada and the Amazon River Basin. There has been significant growth in India, Mexico, the Amazon, and South America, with 12 Waterkeeper Organizations in India, 8 in Mexico, and 13 in 6 South American countries.

In June 2008, environmental advocacy groups from Bangladesh and Nepal successfully applied to become the first Waterkeeper organizations in those countries, adding to our presence in Asia, where we already have programs in India and China.

Our Field Coordinator team has helped many prospective Waterkeeper organizations through the proposal process and has networked with a number of grassroots water advocacy groups both domestically and internationally.  They currently are working with several strong prospective organizations in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and West Virginia, as well as Canada, Columbia, Ecuador, Japan, Nigeria, and Peru.