|
 Since
1990, Gershon Cohen has applied his background in the biological sciences
(Masters Degree in Molecular Biology) and water policy law (Ph.D. in
Environmental Policy) to protect public waters from the discharge of toxic
pollutants. Gershon co-founded the Alaska Clean Water Alliance (ACWA) in
1992, which played a lead role in numerous successful clean-water campaigns
- reviewing industrial discharge permits and Environmental Impact
Statements, and influencing state and federal water pollution laws,
regulations, and policies to help control polluted wastestreams from mining,
oil drilling, and timber harvesting activities.
Dr. Cohen
founded the Campaign to Safeguard America's Waters (C-SAW), a project of the
Earth Island Institute in 1998. C-SAW's principal mission has been to
address the authorization of mixing zones (dilution-pollution zones) within
public waters. C-SAW's efforts to date to reduce and eliminate the
authorization of mixing zones have focused on industrial discharges in
Idaho, Montana, Vermont, Puerto Rico, California, Washington, and Alaska.
C-SAW has also been working with the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund to
develop a litigation strategy to challenge the underlying basis for mixing
zone authorizations nationwide under the Clean Water Act.
 Gershon has
been a leader in the Alaska
and national conservation community's efforts to address pollution from
cruise ships since 1999. He was a member of the Alaska Department of
Environmental Conservation (ADEC) / Coast Guard sponsored Alaska Cruise Ship
Initiative, he represented the Alaskan conservation community during the
drafting and passage of the nation's first federal cruise ship legislation
(Title XIV of the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act), he helped draft the
Alaska Commercial Passenger Vessel Environmental Compliance Act, and
assisted ADEC in the development of discharge regulations for cruise ships
under the CPVEC after passage. He is currently assisting members of the
public and elected officials in Washington, Maine, California and Hawaii on
the development of cruise ship pollution prevention legislation.
Most recently,
he has begun working with Alaska communities to facilitate the construction
of ecologically sustainable municipal treatment facilities that produce
drinking water quality effluent and compost from human sewage within solar
greenhouses.
|
