One Riot, One Ranger

He calls himself the voice of the Hudson and if you were a river, you’d surely want him as your voice.  And you’d be really happy if he’d be your bodyguard as well.  It’s a passionate voice and while seemingly calm and controlled, one gets a feeling it might become loud at times, at least in affect, particularly when confronted with threats and callous disregard for a majestic body of water that often picks up the tab for greed, ignorance, lack of foresight, and a myriad of other human errors. 

I had the pleasure of spending three hours on the Hudson with John Lipscomb, Riverkeeper’s patrol boat captain recently, for a ride beginning in Ossining, extending down past the Tappan Zee, site of a relative potential riot, in a sense, as plans loom for new bridges that as Lipscomb claims, will have a detrimental effect on the river not seen since the last ice age. 

This journey allowed for a beautiful sighting of a nest of fish eagles, remarkable and awe inspiring for those of us on the small boat but to John Lipscomb, a guy whom undoubtedly gets the pleasure of this viewing every day, there is not a hint of complacency.  This nest is as revered as a baby in the arms of long-time infertile couple who just gave birth.  People who live close to rivers tend to be more mindful of them, their magnificence and purpose and power so much more visible and relevant.  Lipscomb does call Piermont, a close by river town in Rockland County home.  One gets the feeling that’s just because mail can’t be delivered to his real home.  On our route, every time Lipscomb sights an issue, even the slightest change or foreign object that he doesn’t like the looks of, his assistant captain types an email to the governing agency for an investigation.

On our journey, we pass the beauty and the atrocities and there’s an abundance of both.  The PCBs, perhaps the most well known environmental tragedy of the Hudson in the last century, caused by at the very least irresponsible behavior and arguably at times reckless dumping by General Electric, are pointed out as is the General Motors 96 acre contaminated riverfront site.  Indian Point, the ticking time bomb that the organization Riverkeeper has analyzed and sought to shut down for many years now, also looms in the distance.  But perhaps nothing has Lipscomb as currently concerned and outraged as the plans for the new Tappan Zee Bridge, or bridges as we learn, since the latest plan is to construct not one but two new six lane bridges in addition to tearing down the old one, in a process Lipscomb describes as just about as undemocratic as the way things are done in Moscow.  Despite the concerns expressed by Riverkeeper and other environmental groups, the towns of Nyack and Tarrytown, and scores of other citizens, plans are rolling full steam ahead for what Lipscomb considers to be the worst possible solution for the problems the Tappan Zee Bridge is experiencing.  The decision was rendered to not even consider working with the existing bridge to correct its problems, despite the fact that there has been absolutely no evidence found for the claim that the bridge was only built to last 50 years.  While Lipscomb acknowledges the need for a remedy to the current bridge’s plight, he is confused and outraged that more thought and time and consideration and consideration of other alternatives, have not gone into the initiative. The impact on the fish and overall health of the river, which along with the nearby towns in each side will be dramatically impacted by a project that will last for years and years and bring devastation to the health of the river and nearby communities, to him has not at all been adequately explored.

At the end of our journey that day, I was more informed.  More understanding of the need to donate as small a gift as $20.00 to support Riverkeeper, an organization that does not accept any government funding.  And inspired to be in the company of a man who gets to work day in and day out protecting the love of his life.  

In the old west, there was one ranger in charge of a riot.  In Lipscomb, there you got it.  But you won’t hear John claim, “Hell, ain’t I enough,” as in the old story from which the phrase “One Riot, One Ranger” was supposedly coined.  John Lipscomb would love all the help he can get to save the river.