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This month he retires, but not before he trains his successor, conservationist and vessel operator Luis Melendez.
Since 2000, Lipscomb, who grew up in Westchester County in Irvington and Tarrytown, has been the vice president for advocacy for Riverkeeper.
He has patrolled the Hudson, including New York Harbor, the Mohawk, and Upper Hudson, searching out and deterring polluters, monitoring tributaries and waterfront facilities, and supporting scientific studies.
“The Riverkeeper community is grateful to Boat Captain John Lipscomb for his unwavering and deeply felt commitment to the Hudson," said Riverkeeper President and Hudson Riverkeeper Tracy Brown. "If the river could talk, it would surely echo these sentiments tenfold."
From late March to early December, Lipscomb’s patrols have covered 4,000 miles annually, from the Upper Hudson and Mohawk River to New York Harbor,r east to Throggs Nec,k and south to the Verrazano Narrows.
Those miles have led to increased enforcement, improved compliance with environmental laws, and millions of dollars in fees, fines, and environmental benefit funding.
His work has also helped establish and support core Riverkeeper campaigns, including dam removal, habitat restoration, species protections, water quality monitoring, water infrastructure investment, citizen watchdog efforts, spill preparedness and response, limits on crude oil transport, defeat of industrial anchorage expansion, and the fight against potentially devastating storm surge barriers.
“Working on and for the Hudson River has been wonderful. Protecting the rights of the Hudson River and the life it supports has been so much more than a job,” said Lipscomb.
In 2008, Lipscomb founded Riverkeeper’s water quality monitoring program, conducting monthly sampling of New York Harbor, the Hudson Estuary, Mohawk River, and Upper Hudson, processing and recording test results in the onboard lab through 2020, when the program expanded into a lab space in Kingston.
On Thursday, June 20, Riverkeeper will honor and celebrate Lipscomb at its annual Summer Splash with the Hudson Hero award.
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