"Never doubt the power of an angry mother!"

Dr. Wendy Walsh: So says Kristine Stratton, Executive Director of Waterkeeper Alliance, an international organization created by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to protect waterways everywhere.

Water, like air, is our most basic life force. In addition to being a basic life sustainer, the world's lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans provide food, transportation, and recreation for all peoples. In the last 50 years, our water has come under attack by industries who have been breaking antipollution laws. Untreated sewage, roads and run-off, pesticides and mercury all threaten water. But during the last decade, a group of grass roots activists, many of them angry housewives, have become stewards for their local waterways.

"We have 191 Waterkeepers and 40 percent are women," Stratton says. "Think about it. Mothers are the ones who nurture everyone, including the earth. They are at the beaches and harbors with their kids, seeing firsthand the damage that pollution is doing to our environment. Also, mothers tend to be the household's conservationist, telling their kids not to let faucets run and installing low-flow toilets with their new bathroom remodel. So it makes sense that many women are compelled to become Waterkeepers."

The seed of a Waterkeeper sprouted back in 1966, when a blue-collar coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen along New York's Hudson River became angry by the loss of their livelihood and united to save their waterway. These fishermen recognized that outspoken, citizen-led advocacy was the only way to ensure that laws were enforced and their river, livelihood, and the health of their families were protected. They took on many of the nation's biggest industrial polluters and won. In 1983, they hired the first full-time Hudson Riverkeeper to patrol the river, to restore its abundant fisheries, and to lead citizen-based enforcement of environmental laws. Since those early days, Hudson Riverkeepers have brought hundreds of polluters to justice and forced them to spend hundreds of millions of dollars restoring the Hudson to health.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lifelong lover of nature and the environment, was one of the attorneys who used ancient laws and courtroom brilliance to compel corporations to not only stop the pollution, but to pay millions of dollars to clean up and restore the natural ecosystem for future generations. His undying passion continues today. In 1999, Waterkeeper Alliance was founded to support these programs. Today, Waterkeeper Alliance is among the world's fastest growing environmental organizations, with nearly 200 Waterkeepers patrolling rivers, lakes, and coastal waterways on six continents. The key criteria to become a local Waterkeeper is a concern for the environment and some passionate energy. The Waterkeeper Alliance provides support for local community activists by licensing them and giving them capacity building and scientific and legal support to fight polluting big businesses.

Even though the Waterkeeper Alliance is now 10 years old and supports Waterkeepers in 19 countries, most of the world's waterways still go unsupervised. The need is everywhere for local people to take action. You are the owner of your stream, lake, river, or waterway. Clean water is a public right. And polluting is theft. If you'd like to help the Waterkeeper in your community or become one yourself, please go to Waterkeeper.org.

In the past 10 years, here is some of what Waterkeeper Alliance has accomplished:

• 8,400 acres in the heart of the Meadowlands will remain natural wetlands because of New York/New Jersey Baykeeper and Hackensack Riverkeeper's successful fight against developers;
• The killing of thousands of endangered sea turtles in Baja, Calif., will now stop because of Punta Abreojos Coastkeeper's success in bringing Baja's most notorious sea turtle poacher to justice;
• India's Yamaha Riverkeeper has been fighting construction of the Commonwealth Games Village in Delhi because of the project's adverse effects on the Yamaha floodplain. Due to pressure from the Indian Waterkeepers and other environmental advocates, on November 3, 2008, the Delhi High Court issued a judgment that any construction close to the river that may have an adverse impact on the environment would not be allowed for the Commonwealth Games 2010;
• A state law requiring car wreckers to remove mercury switches from automobiles that was first passed through the work of Waterkeepers in New Jersey has now been successfully replicated in five other states;
• A lawsuit brought by Hudson Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance will force more than 1,000 power plants and industrial facilities around the nation to upgrade antiquated cooling technology and stop the killing of billions of fish each year;
• A multibillion dollar lawsuit brought by the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper against Atlanta for allowing illegal sewage spills has been replicated successfully by Waterkeepers in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and other cities;
• In October, 2007, Waterkeeper Alliance and key partners, including the governor of Puerto Rico, secured permanent protection for San Mogul Beach's vital sea turtle habitat and part of 3,200 acres of forests, wetlands, beaches, and coral communities -- known as the Northeast Ecological Corridor;
• Vigilantes de Bah Magdalena (Magdalena Baykeeper) -- together with their legal counsel and researchers -- halted a mega-resort development in a fragile Baja, Calif., coastal mangrove ecosystem after identifying grave potential impacts.

The accumulated success of Waterkeeper Alliance adds to the strength of local action -- polluters know that the entire Alliance stands behind each local Waterkeeper.

Dr. Wendy Walsh holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and her area of interest is Attachment Theory, a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings. As a psychological assistant registered with the California Board of Psychology, Dr. Walsh has treated individuals, couples and families for a variety of mental health concerns including personality disorders, anger management, eating and substance disorders, and depression. Connect with Dr. Walsh on Facebook.