Katherine Baer
Senior Director, Clean Water and Water Supply Programs
Department: Conservation
Area of Focus: Katherine leads federal clean water policy work to reduce sewage spills and polluted stormwater runoff and to increase green infrastructure.
Background: Katherine joined American Rivers in 2005. Prior to that she worked as a policy analyst for the legal think tank the Center for Progressive Reform, and as Director of Headwaters Conservation for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in Georgia.
Education: B.A. in Environmental Studies from Stanford University, M.S. in Conservation Ecology from the University of Georgia, and J.D. from the University of Maryland
Favorite River: Chattahoochee River
Blog Posts By This Author
Seeing Water Differently
June 14, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Climate Change
I knew something was wrong when my daughter made a drawing showing water as some mix of “pipes,” “streams,” and the “ocean” – where were the fish, birds and trees? But it made sense, in a way. The nearby Gosling Pond was a stormwater detention basin surrounded by chain-link fence, and our closest river an armored channel with warnings posted for sewer overflows.
Read more »Sewage Right To Know - What's In Your Water?
March 15, 2013 | Water Pollution, Stormwater & Sewage, Climate Change
When there’s a sewage overflow or spill into your local creek or swimming hole, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Well, in some places where there’s good monitoring and notification people do get this information about sewage overflows and can make their own choices about where and when to swim and play in their water.
Read more »More Clean Water In The Courts – The Accotink Creek Decision
February 8, 2013 | Urban Rivers, Stormwater & Sewage, Water Pollution
Recently we described the results of the Supreme Court’s decision in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which was a narrow one. Another Clean Water Act case, Virginia Department of Transportation vs. Environmental Protection Agency addresses the cleanup of Accotink Creek, a tributary to the Potomac River in Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax and the Town of Vienna, Virginia. Decided by the Eastern District of Virginia in favor of the state DOT (and local governments), the case also has a limited holding.
Read more »Salmon, stormwater and streets – a toxic mix
February 6, 2013 | Stormwater & Sewage, Urban Rivers, Water Pollution
Have you ever seen one of those fish drawings near the street on a storm drain – a stencil saying something like, “don’t dump, drains to stream.” And even though you might think of salmon as all living in pristine, beautiful rivers, it turns out that polluted stormwater runoff from developed areas and roads and highways threatens these fish too.
Read more »Clean Water Supplies Through Green Infrastructure
January 21, 2013 | Water Supply, Urban Rivers, Stormwater & Sewage
Here, where I live in North Carolina, our drinking water comes from streams and rivers, like Cane Creek, and Bolin Creek, right near our house flows into Lake Jordan, a regional water supply. And this is true for many of us – the majority of Americans get their drinking water from surface water, including streams and rivers, and so keeping our rivers clean and flowing is critical for reliable supplies.
Read more »