441 Old Newport Blvd. Suite 103
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Phone: 949-723-5424
Fax: 949-675-7091
E-mail: coastkeeper1@earthlink.net
Web site: www.coastkeeper.org
Other California Keeper web sites:
San Francisco BayKeeper: www.baykeeper.org
California CoastKeeper: www.cacoastkeeper.org
Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper: www.sbck.org
Santa Monica BayKeeper: www.smbaykeeper.org
San Diego BayKeeper: www.sdbaykeeper.org

Formed: 1999
Membership Cost: $25 to $10,000
Chapters: One of more than 50 WaterKeeper Alliance groups nationwide.
Executive Director: Garry Brown
From the Beach: membership/contributions: 10%
To the Beach: programs, 85%; administration, 15%

Roots | Past Victories | Present Battles

Roots
The concept comes from England, where river wardens, or keepers, guard private fishing streams from poachers. In 1983, the idea lent its name to a new movement in the United States. In that year, a group of New York fishermen forced General Electric to clean up the Hudson River, which the company was using as a toxic toilet. The group used a no-nonsense strategy: direct legal action to force polluters to clean their mess up. To the fishermen, the Keeper name fit because the corporation was poaching their catch.

The first such group on the West Coast formed in 1989, when biologist Michael Herz founded San Francisco BayKeeper, then the fourth Keeper group in the country. Like the Hudson River fishermen, Herz focused on the decline in his local fishery. It wasn't until the '90s, however, that the Keepers cast a wider net by looking to overall water quality.

Unlike other environmental groups, Keepers are small but committed. "A Keeper is not only an organization, but a person," said Denise Washko, who heads California CoastKeeper, an umbrella of the Southern California groups.

The California groups are also members of WaterKeeper Alliance, headed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Kennedy explained the coalition's philosophy at a Newport Beach fundraiser in September 1999. "Anybody has the right to step into the U.S. Attorney's shoes and bring penalties of $25,000 a day to stop polluters," he told organizers. "The only problem is that no one's been willing to do it here."

Kennedy spoke at a kickoff for Orange County CoastKeeper, headed by Garry Brown. Brown's first year at the helm shows how Keeper groups can be highly effective within a short time. "Garry definitely hit the ground running," Washko said. "Most Keeper groups spend their first year getting organized, not going after huge developers like the Irvine Company."

Brown is a lifelong republican who grew up in Orange County and lives in Huntington Harbor. Around 1996, he made a discovery that changed his life: tons of toxic sludge were sitting in Orange County harbors, most notably the Rhine Channel in Newport Bay.

"I'm thinking of changing sides," Brown said recently. "I wish the Republican Party would wake up and take environmental issues seriously."

While the Keepers aren't as well known as the Surfrider Foundation or some other groups, its profile is rising fast. "The Keeper movement is just exploding," Brown said. "We're unique, we're progressive and we're in your face."

"The Keepers fill a niche," said Jan Vandersloot, director of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and a longtime activist. "It's able to bring together all the diverse elements that protect the coast in one entity. Other groups focus on one part of the territory. We've needed groups to focus on the coast as a whole for a long time."

Past Victories
(1989) San Francisco BayKeeper becomes the first West Coast Keeper group
Since then, it has fought more than 87 major lawsuits and responded to more than 865 pollution incidents.

(1994) Santa Monica BayKeeper collects its first water samples around the Santa Monica Bay
The results showed bacteria levels far beyond legal limits and led to the group's first lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles.

(1996) San Diego BayKeeper files suit against the San Diego Unified Port District
Forced the area's shipyards to reduce toxic discharges through storm drains

(1999) Santa Monica BayKeeper wins landmark suit against the Environmental Protection Agency
Forcing the government entity to set safe pollution levels for beaches in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The lawsuit successfully argues that the 1979 Clean Water Act requires the EPA to set daily pollution limits.

(1999) San Francisco BayKeeper files suit against the State Water Resources Control Board
The action forces sewage treatment facilities in Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Petaluma to reduce outflow of copper, nickel and chromium-laden wastewater.

(2000) Orange County CoastKeeper water testing program nabs polluters
It prompts a $148,000 decision against the operator of the Irvine Company's Pelican Hill Golf Course for dumping wastewater into the ocean at Crystal Cove State Park. Also discovered unlawful dumping by the Orange County Integrated Waste Management District, which was fined $125,000 for the offense.

Present Battles
(1998-) The Santa Monica BayKeeper continues to fight pollution lawsuit filed against the City of Los Angeles in 1998.
More than half of the city's 6,500 miles of sewage line are more than 50 years old, resulting in close to 300 sewage spills each year.

(1999-) The Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper continues to push for the dismantling of Matilija Dam on the upper Ventura River.
Not only does the dam block steelhead trout from breeding upstream, it prevents the outflow of sand and silt at Surfer's Point in Ventura, the group reports.

(2000-) A consortium of California Keepers file a lawsuit against the California Water Resources Control Board
The agency has failed to establish pollution control standards for the state's inland waters. The suit points to high levels of dioxin, mercury and selenium found in streams and wetlands.

(2000-) San Francisco BayKeeper files suit against the Tosco refinery.
Alleging more than 200 incidents in which the refinery near Martinez exceeded federal limits for dioxin-laden sewage

(2000-) Orange County CoastKeeper files suit against California's Coastal Commission for approving a resort complex on the "Little Shell" wetland in Huntington Beach.
The action says the commission violated the state's 1972 Coastal Act when they approved the development. While the wetland totals less than an acre, activists agree its destruction would set a bad precedent. --Erik Skindrud

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