Pure Water, Clean Air, a Stable Climate and Healthy Environment

An Interview with Maya K. van Rossum, author of The Green Amendment, The People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment coming out November 1, 2022. She is founder of Green Amendments for the Generations, the Delaware Riverkeeper and Leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network

Wing Dam on the Delaware River. Lambertville, NJ is on the left and New Hope, PA is on the right. (Flickr/James Loesch)

By Janis Petzel, MD

Q. In your book, you gave numerous examples of how the Green Amendment provided a legal backbone to fight bad environmental events from happening. Do you have examples of how it may have influenced a formerly dirty industry to change how it operates, for example, a housing development that was careful to preserve the environment?

A: First and foremost, the Green Amendment applies to government action rather than directly applying to the actions of private industry. The goal of all constitutional rights is to ensure that as government undertakes its work – passing laws, issuing regulations, and rendering permitting decisions – it is doing so in a way that does not infringe upon the rights of the people. With Green Amendments, the rights being protected are environmental rights. Industry will most certainly be watching how Green Amendment constitutional environmental rights protections influence government decision making and will work to meet honor these protections, knowing that if they try to skirt the law, they will create unnecessary hurdles for the projects they want to advance.

Q: Would you tell me about being “the” Delaware Riverkeeper? I’d like to understand it better. Would you please tell me what it means, and what it means to you?

A: Yes, there is only one ‘Delaware Riverkeeper’ and I am the person with the honor of bearing that title.

Several decades ago, the concept of having a “Riverkeeper” to take personal responsibility for a waterway and to give it a voice in our human world was founded on the Hudson River. John Cronin was the first Riverkeeper in the U.S. In my watershed, activists saw the value and power of having a Riverkeeper, and this idea of a person demonstrating the importance of taking that personal responsibility day in and day out to fight for the river and so we decided we wanted that concept for the Delaware. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network was founded and shortly thereafter I became the person to bear that title. At the time we were part of a larger organization – just starting as an initiative thereof – and so it was up to the board with input from our community to make the decision that I should bear the title a few years into the founding of the organization.

Maya is the Founder of Green Amendments for the Generations and author of the award-winning book Green Amendments. van Rossum is also the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the watershed-based advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years in its efforts to protect the health of the Delaware River and its tributaries. (Courtesy image)

As the Delaware Riverkeeper I am the Riverkeeper for the mainstem Delaware and all of its tributaries, so my role covers the entire watershed. But, as I say to people all the time, the job of giving a river a voice in our human world cannot be accomplished by one person, it requires a community, and that is what the Delaware Riverkeeper Network is, it is a community of activists, experts, lawyers, and all people who care, working together to protect our River and its watershed.

After the Delaware Riverkeeper Network was founded, others were inspired by what was happening on the Hudson and the Delaware and now there are Riverkeepers, Soundkeepers, Baykeepers, Inletkeepers, Lakekeepers on other waterways. People wanting to learn if there is a waterkeeper in their watershed should check out the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Q. It’s a shame the Green Amendment did not pass in Maine. I’m interested for this review but also as a volunteer activist from the state–is there any chance of a second go at getting this passed in Maine?

A: Securing a constitutional amendment is a higher hurdle than legislation, that is one of the powerful benefits – while it is harder to get, once secured it is very unlikely to be lost due to that higher hurdle as well as the personal sense of environmental entitlement passage engenders.

The effort to secure the Maine amendment (what is being called The Pine Tree Amendment) is ongoing. The Maine Youth Action is stepping up in a leadership role, and the original two people I talk about in the book, Michelle Henkin and Andy Burt, are still very engaged. We are looking forward to making great progress in the coming year. I expect Senator Rick Bennett will continue as a champion on the Senate side. On the house side I think Representative Margaret O’Neill will continue as lead. They both have been powerful voices in the legislature to compliment what has been happening in the grassroots. If the Maine amendment passes that will be superb! But if not, we will just have an even stronger foundation to start from on the next go around.

Q: How has the Green Amendment process worked in other states?

A: In every state where we are working it is taking more than one constitutional go around to secure passage – that is because it is both a higher hurdle but it is also a new concept for people to learn about, and, as you can imagine, as soon as industry gets wind of it, they start to come out of the woodwork in opposition (interestingly their opposition generally plays out behind the scenes in private meeting rooms because even they know how stupid they sound to say that the people shouldn’t have a right to clean water and air).

Our Green Amendment in New York took two passes to win – and in that state the process requires each legislative house to vote twice in support in consecutive legislative sessions. The first year it passed the house but not the senate, so we had to go back to the beginning, the second year we got passage in both houses and so were able to move on to that second vote which was also secured in 2021. The amendment then went before the people and passed with over 70% of the vote.

In New Mexico we are on our third year and each time the support and awareness is better and better.

In Delaware this will be the second year.

New Jersey is a few more years in. It has been stymied by legislative leadership using the legislative process to prevent a hearing – the same happened in New Mexico.

I could go on for each state – they each have their story, but everywhere a Green Amendment is advancing communities are dedicating to keeping up the work until success is achieved because they can see the power in having a constitutional right to pure water, clean air, a stable climate and healthy environments, and to ensuring all government officials have a constitutional obligation to protect these rights equitably for all communities.

Q: Thank you for talking with me, Maya. Where can people find the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, find your Green Amendment for The Generations organization and purchase your book?

A: The Delaware Riverkeeper Network website is https://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/. Green Amendments for The Generations is www.ForTheGenerations.org and from there you can find the website and/or web page for your state. If you want to find a copy of my book and a way to order it from your favorite book outlet, or to order it directly from my organization, go to https://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/. Wherever you buy the book from, every penny of profit is dedicated to environmental protection, I don’t take a penny, because for me this is all about saving the world, not making money.