Clearwater Festival goers are invited to help send the sloop off on her journey to Washington, D.C. The sloop will embark for Washington this weekend from the Clearwater Festival, carrying a “cargo of concern” to be delivered to Congress at a Capitol Hill forum on June 29th
WHEN? Saturday, June 17, 5:10pm.
WHERE? On the banks of the Hudson, in the north field of the Clearwater Festival grounds at Croton Point Park, Croton-on-Hudson, New York.
DETAILS: Departing from the Clearwater Festival (aka Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival) at Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, New York the sloop Clearwater will sail from the Hudson River to the nation’s capital to stand up for strong federal clean water protections, which this year have been threatened by regulatory rollbacks and proposed steep budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Erosion of federal clean water protections will profoundly affect waterways and drinking water in New York, including the Hudson River, and nationwide.
The Clearwater will leave from the Festival and arrive in Washington, DC in late June carrying a “cargo of concern” about federal clean water policy the form of petitions, municipal resolutions, and other testimonials from individuals, citizens groups and elected officials across New York and from some other states, which it will deliver to our representatives in Congress.
While in DC, Clearwater and partner organizations will conduct dockside events (full listing here: https://www.clearwater.org/latest-news/visit-clearwater-trip-d-c/) and a June 29 forum on clear water issues on Capitol Hill for members of Congress and their staffs. The forum will feature scientists and government and environmental leaders, including US Representative Sean Patrick Maloney and other members of Congress TBA; Mustafa Ali, former chief environmental justice official at EPA, filmmaker John Bowermaster, John Cronin, the first Hudson Riverkeeper, Besty Garthwaite, chair of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater’s board, Aaron Mair, president of the Sierra Club; Emma Rosi-Marshall, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and others.
At the dockside sendoff ceremony Clearwater’s Interim Executive Director, Dave Conover and Board President, Betsy Garthwaite, will speak and a “fireline” will load the “cargo of concern” onto the sloop for delivery to Congress.
Clearwater’s voyage to Washington and Capitol Hill forum is a reenactment of its 1970 trip, when Pete Seeger sailed the boat to Washington, DC and held a forum on Capitol Hill on clean water issues, which was credited with being a turning point in the fight for the 1972 Clean Water Act. The progress that has been made since then in protecting America’s water resources is threatened, and Clearwater is reprising its historic role to defend it. As Pete Seeger said of the 1970 Clearwater sail to DC, “We’re going to Washington because the problems of the American rivers can’t be solved by people like me who live on them. Only the federal government has the power to enact and enforce the laws that are needed.”
