Miscellaneous
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. “I remember one time, in particular, it was a sunset, and there was nothing but open ocean. The ship slowed down and I could see just miles and miles of huge garbage bags floating that we just unloaded into the ocean. That kind of made me sick, it really did.” He knew there had to be a better way. And so, when he got out of the Navy, Walls transformed himself into a clean water warrior and a high-tech sleuth. As the Upper Potomac Riverkeeper for the last 11 years, he has worked to document and report pollution with digital photos, water sampling equipment, and a drone he launches from a James Bond-like compartment on the back of his motorcycle. He’s working with the Environmental Integrity Project to stop toxic water pollution from a paper mill site in Luke, Maryland. There, local residents are struggling to imagine a new future for themselves after the plant's shutdown. Walls thinks he may have an answer.