Keeper Springs Announces Donation to Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

To date, Keeper Springs has donated more than $1 million to the WaterkeeperÒ Alliance and to individual Keepers throughout the United States.

“We are proud to acknowledge the hard work of Keepers by helping to provide them with additional resources to protect our waterways,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., environmental lawyer and advocate, and co-founder of Keeper Springs. “Keeper Springs exists to help protect and restore our nation’s waterways, and we’re proud to support the everyday heroes that are Keepers in their quest to return our historic waterways to their current, healthy state.”

Each Keeper was given a donation to support specific projects in repairing and restoring local waterways.

Previously, the Buzzards Bay Coalition was acknowledged with a $10,000 contribution from Keeper Springs at their Buzzards Coalition Watershed Ride on October 2 to continue their efforts in preserving and restoring the bay and its waterways.

In addition to individual Keepers, Keeper Springs donated $10,000 to the umbrella organization for all Keepers, the Waterkeeper® Alliance (New York, N.Y.) –a global movement of on-the-water advocates who patrol and protect more than 100,000 miles of rivers, streams and coastlines worldwide. The Waterkeeper Alliance project supported by Keeper Springs is the Clean Water Act (CWA) 40 Initiative, created to support, activate, and advocate with Waterkeepers and their members, the general public, and local and national decision makers regarding the important of the CWA during the 40th anniversary of this historic legislation becoming law.

Also, in addition to supporting local environmental heroes, Keeper Springs also provides start-up funding for Keepers, such as the newly formed Massachusetts Baykeeper, whose mission is to protect, restore, and conserve the Massachusetts Bay and its surrounding watershed. The organization will be acknowledged and formally presented a contribution at the Head of the Charles Regatta on October 25 in Boston, Mass., where Keeper Springs will be the Official Water of the event.

The Keepers who are receiving donations from Keeper Springs in 2011 for the restoration and conservation of local waterways include:

· South River Federation (Edgewater, Md.) – received funding for their Church Creek restoration project to restore one of the most highly polluted sub-watersheds on the South River.

· Tennessee Riverkeeper (Decatur, Ala.) – used their Keeper Springs donation to fund their protection of the Tennessee River by enforcing environmental laws and educating the public.

· Potomac Riverkeeper (Washington, D.C.) – used their contribution to focus on the Green Farms, Clean River program, to improve the environmental practices of small, unregulated farms throughout the watershed area.

· Casco Baykeeper (South Portland, Maine) – received a donation from Keeper Springs for their Bayscaping project, a grassroots outreach program designed to encourage homeowners, businesses and municipalities to reduce their use of pesticides and fertilizers.

· NY/NJ Baykeeper (Keyport, N.J.) – used their donation to fund the organization’s Sewer Fallouts/USEPA project to ensure that USEPA sets tough standards for pathogens in the Harbor estuary.

· Upper Watauga Riverkeeper (Boone, N.C.) – developed the Appalachian Water Watch with Keeper Springs’ contribution, designed to address the single largest source of environmental degradation to the region: the processing, burning and waste disposal of coal-mining.

· Black Warrior Riverkeeper (Birmingham, Ala.) – used their contribution to address pollution throughout the watershed through the Riverkeeper Patrol Program.

· Colorado Riverkeeper (Moab, Utah) – received a donation from Keeper Springs to develop Living Rivers, empowering a movement to instill a new ethic of achieving ecological restoration, balanced with meeting human needs.

· Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (Santa Barbara, Calif.) – put their funding towards creek and beach cleanups, marine debris patrols on the Santa Barbara Channel, advocacy, public outreach and education efforts to reduce the use of disposable shopping bags.

· Russian Riverkeeper (Healdsburg, Calif.) – will use the donation from Keeper Springs towards continued conservation and protection of the River’s mainstem, tributaries and watershed through public education, citizen action, scientific research and expert advocacy.

Learn more about projects supported by Keeper Springs at http://www.KeeperSprings.com.