In Defense of Water 2023 - Waterkeepers Chesapeake

On Thursday, September 28, 2023, Waterkeepers Chesapeake hosted our 7th Annual In Defense of Water Awards and Reception at Patagonia Baltimore. With many of you, we celebrated our clean water successes and honored our Waterkeepers and community members for their outstanding achievements in advancing water and climate justice. For our 10th anniversary, we highlighted our 10 years of harnessing the collective power of our local Waterkeepers to protect clean water and our communities. In addition to the awardees listed below, we surprised Betsy Nicholas with an Executive Director Emeritus Award for her stewardship of Waterkeepers Chesapeake for it’s first ten years. EPA Region 3 Administrator Adam Ortiz for joined us and talked about the importance of partnerships for our clean water work, especially with unlikely allies.

We were thrilled to award our 2023 Waterkeeper Outstanding Win (WOW) Award to Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Ted Evgeniadis. As a partner with Waterkeepers Chesapeake on joint litigation around the relicensing of Conowingo Dam, Ted has been a relentless force for cleaner water, pursuing a fair federal license that led to the historic appeals court decision in December 2022 vacating the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) dam license and remanding it back to FERC. In addition, Ted has had a string of clean water victories on coal ash, sewage overflows, and PFAS contamination, while also serving as Executive Director of the growing Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association and as a Board Member of Waterkeepers Chesapeake for the past 6 years.

We were honored to recognize Richard Dolesh with our 2023 Water Warrior Award. Nominated by Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman, Richard Dolesh has made significant and long-lasting contributions to the protection and restoration of the Patuxent River watershed and its communities. Fred describes Richard as “a perennial volunteer, known by nearly everybody in the Patuxent conservation community, but so modest that recognition for his contributions is long overdue.” Read more about Ted and Richard here. Press release.

We thank Patagonia Baltimore for generously hosting our event at their fabulous new store at 700 S. Caroline Street, and offering a chance to win some awesome Patagonia merchandise! We thank Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Tito’s Vodka and Total Wine & More for their donations.