Brent Walls, the Upper Potomac Riverkeeper in Western Maryland, dedicated his life to fighting for clean water in the Nation’s River after he experienced a moment of clarity. He was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Constellation when he witnessed a routine procedure during his first cruise in the Pacific Ocean. “Twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, the ship would slow down and a bell would ring, and everyone would gather their trash and take it to the back of the boat and just throw it over,” Walls recalled. “That just kind of made me sick, it really did.” When he got out of the Navy, Walls transformed himself into a clean water warrior. As the Upper Potomac Riverkeeper for the last 11 years, he has worked every day to document and report pollution with digital photos, water sampling equipment, and a drone he launches from a compartment on the back of his motorcycle. He’s working with the Environmental Integrity Project to take legal action to stop toxic water pollution from a closed paper mill site in Luke, Maryland, and a nearby coal storage facility.
