Arthur Glowka

1931 - 2013
Arthur Glowka, a US Naval aviator, captain for Eastern Airlines, commercial diver, outdoor writer, avid fisherman, and for over 50 years, a passionate, outspoken citizen scientist and environmental advocate for the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, died of complications from bladder cancer on March 25, 2013. Glowka, a long-time resident of Stamford, Connecticut, was 82. Born February 5, 1931 in New York City to Martin and Anastaria Glowka Art graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1948 and in 1952 from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Between 1952 and 1957 he flew photo reconnaissance missions for the Navy. He later ran an alluvial diamond and gold mining operation in Brazil's Tocantins River. Art married Marion Stadler (1959). They divorced in 1994. Two sons, Lyle and Paul, survive him.

In 1966, Robert H. Boyle, Art and six others, formed the Hudson River Fisherman's Association. They resurrected the Federal Refuse Act of 1899 and introduced the special, Hudson River style, roll-up-your-sleeves brand of aggressive environmentalism later emulated all over the nation, winning a series of legal victories that formed the basis for the modern US environmental moment. These victories continued as the HRFA evolved into Riverkeeper in 1986. He was a founding director of Riverkeeper, the Hudson River Foundation and Long Island Sound Taskforce (later Save the Sound). He lent his energy to those setting-up the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Soundkeeper and Soundwaters. In 1980 he won the Feinstone Environmental Award.

In the early 1970s Art began turning his attention to Western Long Island Sound. He was an advocate for experiencing the Sound first hand. He "represented the critters". A voracious reader of scientific papers and government reports, Art found their inconsistencies and exploded myths of conventional wisdom.

Originally an advocate for stricter controls of sewage flows into the Sound, he came to the startling conclusion that the Sound's biota was starving as the management measures deprived the system of nitrogen, that chemically clean water could not support the ecosystem and had shifted the phyto- and zooplankton based food web, and that the US EPA was not giving equal weight to the biological integrity of the Western Long Island Sound as required by the Clean Water Act. He asserted the decision-making processes were effectively closed to stakeholders and largely unaccountable to taxpayers. He called for the General Accounting Office to investigate the NY-CT Long Island Sound Study. He envisioned a federal district court establishing a Special Master to bring all parties together to look at the Sound's problems from new angles to restore habitat for threatened and endangered species.

On Sunday May 5, Art's family and friends will gather on their boats near Westcott Cove in Stamford to memorialize him at 1130 am. The service can be monitored on VHF channel 72. A reception will follow at the Halloween Yacht Club, 10 Seaview Road. If you plan to attend, or for more information, please contact Bernie Weiss at 203-329-2503 or CaptainBernieWeiss@gmail.com. Photo: John P. Christin