Robert H. Boyle

One of those laws was the Federal Refuse Act of 1899 which the HRFA used as the basis for their litigation in federal court, resulting in a string of victories and substantial fines charged against water polluters.

Robert Hamilton Boyle Jr. (August 21, 1928 – May 19, 2017) was an environmental activist, conservationist, book author, journalist and former senior writer for Sports Illustrated.

During his boyhood in the 1940s, he attended boarding school in Highland Falls, and spent his free time fishing and developing what would become his lifelong affinity with the Hudson River.

Boyle received his B.A. in history from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1949, and furthered his education to earn his M.A. in history and international affairs from Yale University.

He served in the United States Marine Corps in the Atlantic Fleet during the Korean War, achieving the rank of second lieutenant.

He then briefly attended Trinity College in Dublin and the Universitat de Barcelona in Spain, where he also enjoyed a stint as a professional baseball player.

In 1953, Boyle returned to the US and began his career as a writer for the United Press.

In September 1954, he secured a position with Time Inc., and wrote articles for Time Magazine, Life, and Sports Illustrated, the company's newest magazine with only four published issues at the time.

Some of his most notable work included coverage of Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the US in 1959, a 1965 Sports Illustrated cover story when the New York Jets drafted Joe Namath, and coverage of Muhammad Ali resisting the military draft in 1966.

Boyle's environmental activism came to light in December 1959 when he wrote his first conservation article about Tule Lake for Sports Illustrated.

At the time, he was working in the San Francisco Bureau for Time as their West Coast correspondent, and was on location hunting butterflies with entomologist Vladimir Nabokov when he learned that a landfill was planned for the Tulelake Irrigation District, and "that farmers in northern California were draining Tule Lake, a refuge for some 10 million birds during their southern migration".

He was shocked by what was happening, stating: "I took it for granted people weren't going to sully the world. I thought it would get better, not worse".

It wasn't long after the Tule Lake incident that Boyle started taking on much bigger opponents, including various state and federal governments and their respective resource agencies.

"'The same scummy element that manipulated boxers and fixed fights during the Frankie Carbo era is the kind that pollutes the earth. I've been called a fanatic, but the guy who's poisoning a river is the fanatic.'"

Boyle's affinity with the Hudson River and fishing fueled his environmental activism.

He was determined to clean-up the highly polluted Hudson River with its toxic waste and substantial fish kills that had garnered national attention and became the butt of jokes by the late Johnny Carson, former host of The Tonight Show.

Boyle was aware that traditional conservation and environmental efforts were not working, and that much more needed to be done.

Boyle's research and articles were crucial to the litigation brought in 1965 by Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference (Scenic Hudson) against Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), New York's primary electric utility company in the lawsuit titled Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission.

He relayed the concerns of Hudson River Valley citizens and environmentalists regarding Con Ed's proposed pumped-storage power plant on Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Highlands, not the least of which included the potential for irreparable ecological harm, the destruction of critical habitat for aquatic species, and the killing of small fish by the plant's water-intake equipment.

In late December 1965, the court ruled in favor of Scenic Hudson in that round of litigation stating that "the FPC had to consider the environmental consequences of the plan, which they had not done."

In 1966, Boyle founded the Hudson River Fishermen's Association (HRFA) with its members serving as sentries to protect the river and its inhabitants, help reverse the deterioration caused by river pollution, and bring polluters to justice.

He founded the Hudson River Fishermen's Association (HRFA) in March 1966 after meeting with a group of concerned citizens at the Crotonville American Legion Hall.

Fishermen, environmentalists, and scientists comprised the group, and shared Boyle's anger and concerns over the deterioration of the Hudson River.

Prior to the meeting, Boyle had rediscovered two forgotten laws about pollution of navigable waters in the United States, and announced his research findings at the meeting.

In 1969, Boyle published The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History, describing the negative effects of pollution on the waterway.

He was one of the first journalists to report on the methyl mercury, DDT and PCB contamination of saltwater fish when, in October 1970, he wrote Poison Roams Our Coastal Seas.

His research and hands-on activism were crucial to the first litigation in a federal court case titled Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission that resulted in judgments and substantial fines against water polluters.

Litigation dragged on until 1980 when Con Ed entered into an agreement with conservation groups.

Boyle was a signatory for one of the groups, ending the effort to build the pumped-storage power plant.

The Con Ed action "became the basis of environmental law in the United States by establishing the right of citizens to sue the government to protect natural resources".

"'Their suit resulted in the first federal court ruling affirming the right of citizens to mount challenges on the basis of potential harm to aesthetic, recreational or conservational values as well as tangible economic injury'."

As a writer for Sports Illustrated, Boyle broke the mold of typical sportswriter covering football, boxing, golf and other sports.

He extended his range of topics and wrote about various outdoor activities, birds, and other topics that he was passionate about from when he was a small boy, such as fishing and the river.

In recognition of his work over the years, Boyle received the 1981 Communicator of the Year award from the National Wildlife Federation.

Boyle was born in Brooklyn, New York to Robert Sr. and Elizabeth (Coundouris) Boyle, then residents of Park Slope, but he actually grew up in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan where he nurtured his love for fishing.

In 1983, HRFA established the Riverkeeper program, and in 1986, merged the two into a single group officially named Riverkeeper.

"'[Bob Boyle] originated the principles by which Riverkeeper still operates today: support the grassroots; be data driven; and, don't flinch when the going gets tough.'"

The organization grew over the years, and in 1986, was officially renamed Riverkeeper after being merged with HRFA's Riverkeeper program.

It was the first "keeper" group in the global Waterkeeper Alliance movement.

As senior writer, Boyle took full advantage of Sports Illustrated to attract public attention to various conservation and environmental concerns, including the substantial fish kills resulting from the thermal discharge water of power plants, and the effects of acid rain.