Your White Oak-New Riverkeeper

Full-Time Watchdog on the Water

White Oak-New Riverkeeper®Alliance, Inc. is pleased to announce that Tess Sanders has been hired as the new White Oak-New Riverkeeper.  Sanders lives on the banks of the New River and is looking forward to monitoring the White Oak and New Rivers. "This is a great day for the Alliance and for our public trust waters. We are excited to hire a Riverkeeper with such enthusiasm and ability to help launch our new Riverkeeper program.  Tess has been active in environmental issues for some time, and we were pleased to find such an excellent candidate so close to home." said Brian Wheat, President of White Oak-New Riverkeeper Alliance.  

Dale Weston, a founding board member of White Oak-New Riverkeeper Alliance, said "The challenges we face can only be met if we act as a community to preserve and protect our public trust waters.  The term ‘public trust’ means just that.  Nobody has ownership or the right to pollute, to spoil, or take away clean water from others.   Yet we have already forfeited some of our rights to clean water by overlooking (or not looking for) those who profit by contaminating our rivers."

The White Oak-New Riverkeeper will be working with communities throughout the basin on clean water initiatives.  "We  encourage everyone to get involved and help protect the public's right to clean water," said Sanders. "This organization has made a commitment by hiring a full-time voice for the New and White Oak Rivers but we need the community's support to achieve our goals."

"People often ask what a Riverkeeper does", said Sanders.  "A Riverkeeper is part investigator, part scientist, part lawyer and part community organizer. The Riverkeeper serves as a voice for the river and those who live, work and recreate in the watershed.  It sounds a little complicated but it's as simple as this: if it's good for the river, I'm for it.  If it's bad for the river, I'm against it. I look forward to working with our members, communities and governments to preserve and defend the New and White Oak Rivers."

View the Channel 9 News story here.