The Original Riverkeeper: Six Decades Patrolling the Hudson

Riverkeeper began in 1966 as the Hudson River Fishermen's Association, hiring the first paid 'Riverkeeper' patrol boat captain in 1983 to track down polluters -- a model since replicated by hundreds of waterkeeper groups worldwide. It waged a three-decade legal battle that forced General Electric to dredge PCBs it had dumped into the Hudson between 1947 and 1977, and today its patrol boat and staff scientists sample water quality along more than 2,400 miles of the Hudson and its tributaries every year. Riverkeeper also defends the watershed that supplies unfiltered drinking water to millions of New York City-area residents, combining litigation, water testing and grassroots advocacy to keep the river swimmable and drinkable.