Folder_0047

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

operating budget shot up thankslargely to Kennedy's fund-raising and his ability to attract celebrities to the cause, like ac-' . tors Alec Baldwin. Glenn Close, and Lor- raine Bracco. Riverkeeper's annual dinner dance, which last year grossed about $600,000, has become one of New York's social highlights. (Former treasurer John 1—Fry was cautiously.grateftiL"It's 'a hugely'__ successful way of making money, he says now, "but that doesn't necessarily mean you get the most informed people running " the organization.") When Ted Turner was the benefit's guest of honor in 1997, In Style magazine was there to report on the swirl of Kennedys and movie stars. Maybe there's a cautionary tale here, about how a nonprofit organization can toxic levels of chic. But if so, it pales at his home above the Hudson, reach "I'm not an avenging angel." Robert Boyle, here organization Boyle founded. beside the core conundrum of why Bobby the lost the battle to keep William Wegner out of Kennedy Jr., champion of the environ- went to the mat fora wihilife crim- board in 1904. The Hudson River ment, chief prosecuting attorney, Robert F Kennedy came on Why would he drive out Bob Boyle, once a greasy loo, a joke on The inal. Jr., against its president and founder, Robert was the man he has often called his mentor? command —but Tonight Show. It has been Riverkeeper that H. Boyle. left Kennedy in Why would he risk Riverkeeper's good of what, only the lunge will show. - has led the long campaign to reclaim it, and perhaps his own as well? more than 100 successful suits against name To outsiders at least, the immediate with resulting in more than $1 bil- cause of the showdown seemed peculiar polluters that money has funded a Weeks after the June 20 vote, Boyle is still Kennedy had been in- lion in fines; out to do in Williatn Weg- indeed. For months seething. "I'm not on filling a job as Riverkeeper's staff massive cleanup that has brought the Hud- "I'm not an avenging angel. sisting the dead. At the same time, net," he says. scientist (a key monitor of polluters son back from is damaging to him as well, to be thrust Newyork state) with Riverkeeper has become the chief tor- - This throughout much of the public arena this way. But he does convicted environmental criminal. The mentor of Newyork City's mayor Rudolph into environmental move- a environmental issues, espe- not belong in the individual in question, William Wegner, Giuliani on ment. I'm not going to hire a child moles- behind a sophisti- cially regarding the purity of the city's had been the brains run a nursery school." He paws supply. And on top of that, the suc- ter to cated egg-smuggling ring, which for more water Riverkeeper has spawned a na- through months of memos, the history of of than eight years slipped some 600 cocka- cess Wegner fight. "Riverkeeper had a ster- eggs worth about $1.5 million out of tionwide movement: There are now dozens the reputation, and now there's a huge too baykeepers around the coun- ling Australia and into the United States. These of river- and there by Mr. Kennedy." and more being formed, all under the blot on it, put birds, members of the parrot group, were try, Alliance. From the deck of his house in Putnam umbrella of the Water Keeper then hatched and sold illegally by Wegner Boyle has a view of 15 miles of the For much of this the country has County. Highlands, seen from way up where and his cohorts—ho included his then- thank. Though not the founder, Hudson girlfriend, an animal keeper at the Play- Kennedy to He doesn't give it a glance. Angeles. he has become the face of the movement, the hawks float. boy mansion in Compact and bald, Boyle at 72 has the tousle -haired zealot with the quick The vigor, even ferocity with which the prowling energy of a small bear—'a cur- fought to hire this man has left sword. "He's a very smart guy," says Pro- genius,' former Riverkeeper Kennedy a Richard Bopp, an environmental sci- mudgeon and various people appalled. "J found it ab- fessor member AnnTonetti calls him. Born has worked with Kennedy in board solutely bizarre, reckless, and very dam- entist who remember writing him about in New York City, Boyle was a staff writer "I aging to the environmental movement," the past. aspects of contaminant geo- for Sports illustrated for more than 25 years; opinion that has some different articles for the says Boyle, voicing an was while researching 46, still chemistry. He picked it up right away. That's it many echoes. Though Kennedy, that he became infatuated with judge environmental lawyers: The magazine has a legion of vigorous supporters—his how I Hudson. A natural-born warrior, he can understand and internalize the the faction did prevail when it came to a show- best founded the Hudson River Fishermen's As- —elsewhere there's a free-floating scientific and technical." And the political. and this rough-and-ready, down sociation in 1966, 1997 Kennedy was praised as the bridge fear that he has imperiled Riverkeeper's In constructing what's known as mostly blue-collar group launched a fight effectiveness by forc- builder in river that would mark the re putation and future "watershed agreement," a pact with to reclaim their environmental law. ingWegner onto the staff. What has added the of modem New York City to improve the reservoir sys- birth to the confusion, and even grief, in some —negotiations that took as much care The battle was joined over Storm King. quarters, is that Kennedy has done this to tem a magnificent 1,355-foot mountain rising has done and skill as blowing Venetian glass. an organization for which he from the banks of the Hudson. Consoli- outstanding work over the past 16 years. In other ways Kennedy's star power has Edison had announced its intention group has been a more complex asset, at least for dated Indeed, no environmental the largest pump storage fa- Riverkeeper. During the '90s the group's to construct gained more clout and class, since Kennedy

54 talkoctoheC O

NYC-WTC 000137656