Greenwatch records

UD Library opens new Delaware politics, policy and government collection

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3:52 p.m., May 28, 2015--The University of Delaware Library has announced a new research collection, the Greenwatch Institute records. 

The collection includes materials on Delaware politics, policy and government and is now available for research in Special Collections on the second floor in the Morris Library.

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Greenwatch Institute was created in 1992 as the result of a legal settlement with Keystone Cogenerations Systems Inc. in which a trust fund was established to be used for projects benefiting the environment.

In August 1991, Keystone was granted coastal zone and subaqueous land permits by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), allowing the company to build a coal-fired electric- and steam-generating plant in Logan Township, New Jersey, and a 1,600-foot pier into the Delaware River. 

Seven environmental activists, including Delaware author and environmentalist Jerry Shields, appealed the permits and, after a legal labyrinth, negotiated a tough settlement that gave the appellants an independent engineer to monitor the pier and water intake and provided $450,000 for establishment of a trust fund "to be used for projects benefiting the environment." 

Greenwatch Institute administers those funds.

Since its founding, Greenwatch Institute has engaged in environmental advocacy, acted as a watchdog, and supported fellow Delaware environmental groups.

The members of Greenwatch monitor compliance of the Logan Generating Plant in Salem, New Jersey, as it unloads hundreds of tons of coal each year. 

Greenwatch Institute has also supported the Brandywine and Christina Rivers Task Force, which evaluated the waterways and made recommendations to protect and improve them, and works to protect and enhance the environment in the region of the Delaware River estuary.

Shields was chairman of Greenwatch Institute from its founding until his death in 1998. This collection largely represents his work for the institute.

Born in 1935 in North Carolina, Shields, who held a doctorate in English from Duke University, moved to Dover in 1972 and taught at Wesley College, Delaware State University and Wilmington University.

Among his many research interests was the literary career of George Alfred Townsend, the Delaware novelist and noted Civil War-era journalist who wrote under the pen name GATH.

In his later years, Shields became interested in environmental causes. In addition to his work for Greenwatch Institute, he also was chairman of Watch Our Waterways. He served on the Delaware Low Level Radiological Policy Task Group, the Delaware Solid Waste Advisory Committee, the Delaware Nature Education Advocacy Committee, the Citizen’s Coalition for Tax Reform and the Sierra Club’s National Energy Committee.

Shields was known both for his literary contributions and political activism.

The Greenwatch Institute records consist of approximately three linear feet of legal, administrative and research materials produced during the institute’s founding and early operations.

Access to the collection description for the Greenwatch Institute records is available through the University Library website.

About Special Collections

Holdings of Special Collections of the University of Delaware Library include books, manuscripts, maps, prints, photographs, broadsides, periodicals, pamphlets, ephemera and realia from the 15th to the 21st centuries. 

The collections complement the library's general collections with particular strengths in the subject areas of the arts; English, Irish and American literature; history and Delawareana; horticulture; and history of science and technology.

Special Collections is located on the second floor of the Morris Library.

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