Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) water quality director Shanon Phillips and Illinois River watershed stakeholder Margot Purdy will receive Save the Illinois River’s top awards Saturday, October 17 at Sequoyah Outing Club near Tahlequah. The two scenic rivers advocates will be honored at STIR’s Annual Ed Edmondson Awards Banquet held during the group’s annual member’s meeting.
Shanon Phillips
A native of Kansas, Phillips earned her Master’s in Zoology at Oklahoma State University, where she studied nutrient impacts in lakes. She joined OCC in 1997 as a technical writer and worked her way up the ranks to become a director in 2009. Today, Phillips coordinates a staff of more than 40 who conduct statewide and watershed-specific monitoring, education, implementation, and water quality planning programs.
She is recognized for her knowledge and understanding of water quality programs on a state and federal level, which includes activities completed under the EPA Clean Water Act Section 319 Program, the State’s Wetland Program, USDA Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, the Blue Thumb Program, and the State’s Carbon Sequestration Verification Program.
Margot Purdy
Purdy will receive the Francie Fite Water Warrior Award. She grew up in Tulsa and moved to Tahlequah in 1982, where she met and married her husband, Ken. The couple raised two sons and built a retirement home on the river in 2016, where the Purdy family had owned property since 1963.
A longtime member of STIR, Purdy became in her words an “accidental activist” in response to an unpermitted commercial roadway that was developed through the river wetlands adjacent to their property. For the past several years, she has worked diligently alongside STIR to enlist intervention at the state and federal levels to protect the river and its wetlands. However, to date those agencies charged with environmental protection have been inactive.
“The challenge continues and in collaboration with STIR my own efforts continue,” Purdy said.
