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Our History

Potomac Riverkeeper, Inc. was founded in 2000 by a group of local community members who saw the need for stronger enforcement of federal, state, and local clean water protections in local rivers through grassroots advocacy and legal action. Riverkeepers are the eyes and ears of the rivers, the voice of the rivers, and the experts in the rivers, protecting the public’s rights to clean water. Encompassing the skills of scientists, teachers, law officers, fishermen, and paddlers, Riverkeepers combine a profound knowledge of their waterway, matched with a relentless commitment to protecting clean water and the rule of law.

Ed Merrifield was hired in 2003 as the first Potomac Riverkeeper and President of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network. In 2006, Jeff Kelble was hired as the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, and in 2010 Brent Walls joined the team as Upper Potomac Riverkeeper. Ed Merrifield led the foundation in its early stages to their first successes including filing the first enforcement actions against polluters and testifying before Congress on the intersex fish problem that was plaguing the Potomac River in 2006. Ed retired from being President at the end of 2012, and in 2014 Jeff transitioned to be President and Riverkeeper.

In 2015, Potomac Riverkeeper Network was formed when the organization hired two new Riverkeepers: Mark Frondorf, Shenandoah Riverkeeper, and Dean Naujoks, Potomac Riverkeeper as well as Phillip Musegaas, Vice President of Programs and Litigation, to oversee its expanding docket of legal actions. The resulting organization, PRKN, is the sole nonprofit combining assessment, advocacy, legal action, and community engagement to stop pollution in the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.

After several more years of growth and success defending clean water in the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and their tributaries, Jeff left Potomac Riverkeeper Network, and in 2018 Nancy Stoner, one of the nation’s most experienced water policy experts, joined the organization as the new president, and, along with the board of directors, has helped PRKN expand and deepen its reach throughout the watershed.

Water usage

Water is a critical component of data center operation for cooling.
Water-cooled data centers can consume up to one million gallons or more per day. The data industry rarely discloses its water usage, and the cumulative impact of the Potomac Basin is unknown but is likely to be major.

e-waste from operations

The e-waste from centers contains a distressing array of toxic chemicals. Their disposal in landfills comes with a risk of leaching into groundwater and Potomac and Shenandoah watershed rivers and tributaries – the same waterways which are the source of drinking water for six million people in the region.

Tens of millions of processors, servers, and battery systems and thousands of miles of PFAS-treated wiring and other e-waste material will become obsolete and will be removed from regional data centers each year.  A small percentage will undergo recycling, but the scale of this disposal need will be so large that the bulk of this material will end up in landfills, many of which have leak problems.

Sophisticated Pollution Monitoring Upstream of Drinking Water Intakes

The greatest concentrations of existing and approved data centers are upstream of regional drinking water intakes. Operations could also potentially have adverse impacts to tributaries that provide water to ecologically important areas such as national wildlife refuges and wetland reserves.  

Data Centers at Superfund Sites

In both Maryland and Virginia, developers plan data centers on Superfund sites. Some of these contain ponds and soils holding cyanide, fluorides and corrosives which, through land clearing and moving, can be released and flow into nearby waterways.

Flood Retention: Modeling and Structures

Data center developers and local governments are currently using outdated rainfall prediction models to design flood control structures. This results in flood-retention facilities that are inadequate to handle today’s more torrential rainfall. 

Millions of Gallons of Diesel Storage

To assure uninterrupted operations, data centers in the region will likely have more than 25,000 diesel backup generators which will require tens of millions of gallons to be stored on site. At peak periods, they would need one million to two million gallons of fuel per hour of operation. This means numerous large-scale storage tanks, miles of piping and many thousands of valves and fittings that can deteriorate and leak.  

Need for Comprehensive Potomac Watershed Impact Assessment

Too much emphasis is on speed of development and too little on careful analysis of long-term impacts.

Legislators at the state and local level should insist that no data center approval or permit is granted until comprehensive assessments of the cumulative impact of data centers and related infrastructure can be initiated.