Greenwatch Institute records

Greenwatch Institute was created in 1992 as the result of a settlement with Keystone Cogenerations Systems Inc.

Greenwatch was officially incorporated by January 3, 1993 and gained exemption status as a non-profit organization in 1995. 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, N.J., and a 1,600-foot pier into the Delaware River. Seven environmental activists (including 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 benefitting 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. They have also supported the Brandywine and Christina Rivers Task Force, which evaluated these waterways and made recommendations to protect and improve them. Greenwatch Institute works to protect and enhance the environment in the region of the Delaware River estuary.

Delaware author and environmentalist Jerry 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, Jerry Shields received A.B. and M.A. degrees in journalism from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in English from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. and taught for a while at Slippery Rock College in Pennsylvania. In 1972, Shields moved to Dover and spent time teaching at Wesley College, Delaware State University, and Wilmington College. Shields began writing professionally in 1978, authoring three books and many articles and pamphlets. His literary works include The Invisible Billionaire-Daniel Ludwig, Gath's Literary Work and Folk and Other Selected Writings of George Alfred Townsend, and Doctors on the New Frontier. His biography of Townsend, a famed Civil War journalist, won first place in the National Federation of Press Women Contest.

In his later years, Shields became interested in environmental causes. In addition to his work for Greenwatch Institute, Shields was also chairman of Watch Our Waterways. He was instrumental in implementing the Coastal Zone Act in Delaware, and he testified before congressional committees over one hundred times on a range of environmental issues.

Shields also 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. He was active in the movement to build adequate housing for the Delaware State Archives and taught in both Elderhostel and Southern Delaware Academy of Lifelong Learning programs. Shields worked regularly with the Delaware Heritage Commission and contributed to organizing its annual Delaware Authors Day. He was known both for his literary contributions and political activism. At the time of his death in 1998, Shields was working on a new book about Patty Cannon, an infamous Delaware slave trader and murderer.

Reid, John P. "Jerry A. Shields: A Tribute." www.dca.net/jreid/shields.html (accessed January 28, 2002)."Jerry Shields, 63; environmentalist."The News Journal, October 27, 1998.Shields, Jerry. "Paper unfair to environmentalists."The News Journal, August 30, 1992.