Summer 2010 issue--Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
This Margaret Mead quote can sum up a lot of what is happening in advocacy groups across the nation and across the world. First, there are small groups of people with a mindset to change things. Eventually, those small groups start up in other places, and eventually those many small groups can make some big changes.
Kathy Phillips knows that all too well. Anywhere in the world that Phillips goes, she can meet a friend. Phillips is part of a global network of Waterkeepers who are protecting the waters of the world for the rest of us.
Phillips is executive director of the Assateague Coastal Trust and also the “COASTKEEPER.” Within the Chesapeake region, there are 15 “RIVERKEEPER” programs, and because the coastal bays are the object of Phillips’ protection, she is called the COASTKEEPER. The waters she is responsible for are the inland bays just behind Ocean City, Md., and Assateague Island. This spring she was set to start her Swimmable Bays project and will test water quality samples in the northern coastal bays. She will work with the lab at Salisbury University to analyze bacteria and will post her findings online for the public.
“Ocean City and Assateague monitor the swimming beaches,” Philips explained. “And the county monitors one swimming area. They do bacteria monitoring there, but all the rest of the bays, where people Jet-Ski and clam and raft, there is no real public database to see bacteria levels.”
She also said that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources monitors the Maryland coastal bays, but her research will come from different areas. “Between all of them, we’ll have an even better picture of the health of the bays.”
The current plan is to monitor water quality at sites within the following bodies of water: Assawoman Bay, Isle of Wight Bay, St. Martins River, Herring Creek, and Sinepuxent Bay.
Phillips’ said her love of the water and of advocacy work seems to have led her straight to her current position as COASTKEEPER. Years ago, she said, she marched for civil rights, and protested the Vietnam War. And after that, when she and her husband moved to the area, she saw that they might have trouble finding access to surfing. Because of her efforts and efforts of the city council and a local attorney, Ocean City still has surfing beaches today.
After that, she ended up becoming the executive director of the Eastern Surfing Association for 15 years. During that time she became an advocate for surfers along the coast and made sure that East Coast surfers were represented in national championships, and in the media.
After her son was grown, she said she was going to retire and “enjoy being out on the water and paint,” but said she was persuaded to run for county commissioner for Districts 3. “I was tired of seeing over-development in West Ocean City, so I said, ‘I’ll do it.’”
Phillips explained that, although she did not win, she spent an amazing five months campaigning and meeting people and getting to know a lot more about the issues that concerned people.
“It brought out a lot of problems people didn’t want to talk about,” she explained. “It got dialogue going in the county about a lot of things.”
Eventually the Assateague Coastal Trust, ACT, invited her to apply. She said she didn’t know what the WATERKEEPER Alliance was and thought, “I’m not a biologist, a scientist, or a lawyer, but I have since discovered RIVERKEEPERS are from all walks of life.”
After that, she discovered that the board of ACT does have a geologist, a lawyer and biologists on hand, as well as other advocates, so she said to herself, “‘OK, I’ll put an application in.’ And here I am!”
On the ACT Web site, the COASTKEEPER is described in three ways: “an on-the-water monitor who patrols the watershed by boat in search of evidence of pollution or other water quality problems; an on-the-ground educator who informs landowners, farmers, boaters and citizens about environmentally-friendly practices they can employ to prevent adverse impacts on the land and waters and, most importantly, the COASTKEEPER is an in-the trenches advocate for the health of the coastal bays and the communities who depend on them; making sure existing laws to protect water quality are fully enforced, pressing for the enactment of stronger measures to safeguard our marshes, creeks and bays, and standing up to polluters and policymakers to hold them accountable for their actions.”
Phillips explained that ACT is mostly privately funded by individuals and foundations, so they are free from government influence. They got their start in the 1970’s trying to preserve Assateague Island (which is now a protected National Seashore) and have grown to having more than 700 members and community partners.
In March, Assateague COASTKEEPER and WATERKEEPER Alliance filed a lawsuit in the federal District Court of Maryland, against a local chicken factory farm in Berlin, Md., for illegal discharges of harmful pollution into the Franklin Branch of the Pocomoke River, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay.
And ACT and Phillips are part of Grow Berlin Green (GBG), a new three-year campaign to encourage Berlin residents, businesses and government officials to connect the community to conservation. People can find more information on that at http://www.growberlingreen.org.
“Everything I have done in life has sort of led up to his,” said Phillips. “It is incredible to be part of the WATERKEEPER movement. I can go anyplace in the United States, Canada, Mexico or India and be able to find a friend because of this network of friends. The highlight of the year is the conference. You get concerned or frustrated, and then you get together and realize we have all been having the same problems, or you find that someone has found a way to fix it.”
For more information on the COASTKEEPER and Assateague Coastal Trust, visit actforbays.org.
