Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, and its executive director, Jill Jedlicka, winner of the Thiess International Riverprize awarded by the International River Foundation. As Buffalo's industrial economy faded, we were left with a river so polluted that the Environmental Protection Agency declared that the Buffalo River was biologically dead and ecologically destroyed. So western New Yorkers decided to do something about it. They formed the Friends of the Buffalo River, which became the first organization to receive Federal authority and funding to manage a remediation project in the Great Lakes. Now, thanks to the Riverkeeper, the Buffalo River has come back to life, with over $80 million in private investment as Buffalonians reclaim their land at the water's edge. I congratulate the Riverkeeper on this recognition, and I thank it for the legacy it has left to our community, one of the greatest environmental success stories in Western New York's history. ____________________”