Stoner Led PRKN Through Period of Significant Growth and Historic Achievements
Washington, DC – January 2 – Potomac Riverkeeper Network (PRKN) Board Chair Randy Benn announced today that Nancy Stoner, PRKN President, will be departing May 1, 2025.
“Since June 1, 2018, Nancy has been a truly dynamic force for PRKN,” Benn said. “She led us through the upheavals from the pandemic and through a period of significant growth thereafter with grace and determination. And she also used her incredible experience to help guide PRKN to truly historic achievements in the protection of clean water. We will miss her.”
Said Stoner, “I will always be an advocate for clean water and I will always reflect on my time at PRKN as among the most personally and professionally productive and rewarding experiences of my life. I have been inspired by the commitment and dedication of my coworkers at PRKN and by the beauty and splendor of the rivers we protect. I will miss PRKN but now is the time for me to start a new challenge.”
Many have been the achievements of PRKN during Stoner’s tenure. The organization sued lots of polluters – the City of Alexandria, the US Navy, a local wastewater treatment plant whose discharges were contaminating oysters, and the owners of a defunct papermill, to name some – and the results of each action helped to assure cleaner water for drinking, for recreation, and for aquatic life. PRKN also began community science water quality monitoring programs in the Potomac and Upper Potomac watersheds and identified and forced Virginia to inform the public of the harmful algal outbreaks that threaten human health and wildlife. During Stoner’s presidency, PRKN expanded the use of technology – drones and water quality sensors – and developed partnerships with universities for internships and water quality analysis.
Under Stoner’s leadership, PRKN also gained key legislative successes, including laws in Virginia to fund agricultural best practices, and in Maryland to prohibit the sale of certain products containing PFAS (toxic “forever” chemicals), and to expand the authority of Marylanders to protect small streams and wetlands against pollution.
Stoner’s entire career has been devoted to the protection of clean water in the United States – from her early days as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice, her leadership of the Water office at the Environmental Protection Agency, her philanthropic work at the Pisces Foundation, and her advocacy on federal policy and to clean up the Anacostia River at Natural Resources Defense Council.
Benn concluded, “As we begin our search for Nancy’s successor, we will be aware of what she has brought to PRKN. We will be forever thankful to her and we wish her the very best – and we will always look to her for guidance on knotty issues facing the clean water movement in the United States.”
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About Potomac Riverkeeper Network
Potomac Riverkeeper Network is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization with three regional Waterkeeper branches: Potomac Riverkeeper, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper, and Shenandoah Riverkeeper. Our mission is to protect the public’s right to clean water in the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and their tributaries. We stop pollution to enhance the safety of our drinking water, protect healthy river habitats, and enhance public use and enjoyment.
