Pollution of the Hudson River

The Hudson River from the Poughkeepsie Bridge

General Electric's pollution of the Hudson River with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) between 1947-77 is the major historic contamination of the Hudson River Valley. This pollution caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river or drink the water. In response to this contamination, activists protested in various ways. Musician Pete Seeger founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the Clearwater Festival to draw attention to the problem. The activism led to the site being designated as one of the superfund sites. Other kinds of pollution, including mercury contamination and sewage dumping, have also caused problems.

Types of pollution

NYSDEC has listed various portions of the Hudson as having impaired water quality due to PCBs, cadmium, and other toxic compounds. Hudson River tributaries with impaired water quality (not necessarily the same pollutants as the Hudson main stem) are Mohawk River, Dwaas Kill, Schuyler Creek, Saw Mill River, Esopus Creek, Hoosic River, Quaker Creek, and Batten Kill. Many lakes in the Hudson drainage basin are also listed.^[1]

Other ongoing pollution issues affecting the river include: accidental sewage discharges, urban runoff, heavy metals, furans, dioxin, pesticides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).^[2]

PCBs

Numerous factories that at once lined the Hudson River poured garbage and industrial waste directly into the river.

PCBs were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluid in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors. This pollution was not comprehensively assessed until the 1970s. By that time, the largest remaining factories in the area were owned by General Electric, which became primarily responsible for cleaning the Hudson River. Between approximately 1947 and 1977, GE released between 500,000 lbs and 1,500,000 lbs of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson River.^[3] The PCBs came from the company's two capacitor manufacturing plants at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward in New York.^[3]

PCBs could be legally discharged into the river until 1997. The bulk of the PCBs in the river were made by Monsanto Co. under the brand names Aroclor 1242 and Aroclor 1016. .^[4] The highest concentration of PCBs in found in the Thompson Island Pool.^[5][6]

Mercury

A study reported in the August 2008 issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry suggests that mercury in common Hudson River fish, including striped bass, yellow perch, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and carp, has declined strongly over the past three decades. The conclusions were extracted from a large database of mercury analyses of fish fillets accumulated by NYSDEC and collected over much of the length of the Hudson from New York City waters to the Adirondack watershed. The research indicates that the trends are in line with the recovery that the Hudson River has experienced over the past few decades, now that activist groups, government officials and industry are beginning to cooperate to help clean up the river system.^[7]

Invasive species

In the 1990s zebra mussels came to infest the river.^[8]

Cooling water withdrawal

In 2010 NYSDEC charged that the Indian Point Energy Center, a nuclear power plant in Buchanan, is violating the Clean Water Act because of its large withdrawals of water from the Hudson, which kills millions of fish and other aquatic organisms each year. The state is demanding that Entergy, the plant operator, replace its fish screens with cooling towers to mitigate the environmental impacts.^[9]

Effects of pollution

The PCBs caused extensive contamination of fish in the river and apparently triggered a rapid evolutionary change in the Atlantic tomcod, which after about 50 years of exposure evolved a two amino acid change in its AHR2 receptor gene, causing the receptor to bind more weakly with PCBs than normal.^[10] The mutation does not prevent the tomcods from accumulating PCBs in their bodies and passing them on to striped bass and whatever else eats them.^[10] This system of passing contamination on to larger organisms is also known as biomagnification. The toxic chemicals also accumulated in sediments that settled to the river bottom.^[11]

In 1976 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation banned all fishing in the Upper Hudson because of health concerns with PCBs.^[3][12] PCBs are thought to be responsible for health issues that include neurological disorders, lower IQ and poor short-term memory (active memory), hormonal disruption, suppressed immune system, cancer, skin irritations, Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, heart disease, and diabetes. PCB contamination in humans may come from drinking the contaminated water, absorption through the skin, eating contaminated aquatic life, and/or inhaling volatilized PCBs. PCB contamination is especially dangerous for pregnant and nursing women. The contamination can reach the fetus and potentially cause birth defects. Contamination through breast milk can also have harmful effects on the child indirectly.

Responses to pollution

Clearwater

Clearwater has gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a clean-up of PCB contamination of the Hudson River caused by industrial manufacturing by General Electric and other companies on the river's edge. Other specific Hudson watershed issues with which Clearwater is concerned are development pressures in the southern half of the Hudson Valley, pesticide runoff, the Manhattan west side waterfront, Indian Point nuclear reactors, and New York/New Jersey Harbor dredge spoil disposal. Clearwater has gained worldwide recognition for its leadership in helping to pass landmark environmental laws, both state and federal, including the Clean Water Act. Clearwater played a key role in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to compel one of the Hudson River’s biggest polluters to begin removing toxic PCBs from the water and restoring one of the most polluted portions of the river.^[13]

In 2002, Pete Seeger was named a "Clean Water Hero" for his prominent efforts in the passage of the Clean Water Act.^[14] His tireless devotion to working through Clearwater and promoting its message to effectively use the law in prosecuting polluters of America’s waterways has made the Clean Water Act one of the most successful environmental laws in the country.^[15]

The EPA said after Seeger's death in 2014 that "the incredible work" of Seeger and the Clearwater organization helped make the Hudson River cleaner. "His leadership was extraordinary", regional Administrator Judith A. Enck told United Press International.^[16]

Seeger was involved in the environmental organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which he co-founded in 1966. This organization has worked since then to highlight pollution in the Hudson River and worked to clean it. As part of that effort, the sloop Clearwater was launched in 1969 with its inaugural sail down from Maine to South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, and thence to the Hudson River.^[17] Amongst the inaugural crew was Don McLean, who co-edited the book Songs and Sketches of the First Clearwater Crew, with sketches by Thomas B. Allen for which Seeger wrote the foreword.^[18] Seeger and McLean sang "Shenandoah" on the 1974 Clearwater album. The sloop regularly sails the river with volunteer and professional crew members, primarily conducting environmental education programs for school groups. The Great Hudson River Revival (aka Clearwater Festival) is an annual two-day music festival held on the banks of the Hudson at Croton Point Park. This festival grew out of early fundraising concerts arranged by Seeger and friends to raise money to pay for Clearwater's construction.

Seeger's album Clearwater Classics. The title alludes to his work with the Clearwater group, working to clean the Hudson River.

In 1966, Pete Seeger and Toshi Seeger founded Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an environmental education organization and an actual boat (a sloop), that promotes awareness of the river and its history. Clearwater has gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a clean-up of PCB contamination of the Hudson caused by GE and other companies.^[19]

Seeger wrote and performed "That Lonesome Valley" about the then-polluted Hudson River in 1969, and his band members also wrote and performed songs commemorating the Clearwater.

The 106-foot-long sailboat, Clearwater, was built to conduct science-based environmental education aboard the sailing ship. Clearwater has education programs with many colleges and institutions, including SUNY New Paltz, and Pace University. The sail ship has become recognized for its role in the environmental movement. The Clearwater Festival brings Hudson Valley residents together to enjoy music, their cultural heritage, and support a cause.^[20] The Environmental Protection Agency said after his death that "the incredible work" of Seeger and the Clearwater organization helped make the Hudson River cleaner. "His leadership was extraordinary", regional Administrator Judith A. Enck told United Press International.^[16]

Superfund designation

In 1977, PCBs were banned in the United States.^[21] In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared a 200-mile (320 km) stretch of the river, from Hudson Falls to New York City, to be a Superfund site requiring cleanup. This superfund site is considered to be one of the largest in the nation. There have been many programs of remediation work to reduce the PCB pollution. In 1984, approximately 200 miles (320 km) of the Hudson River was designated a Superfund site, and attempts to clean up the upper Hudson River began, including the removal in 1977–78 of 180,000 cubic yards (140,000 m³) of contaminated river sediments near Fort Edward.^[22] In 2001, after a ten-year study of PCB contamination in the Hudson River, the EPA proposed a plan to clean up the river by dredging more than 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of PCBs. The worst PCB hotspots are targeted for remediation by removing and disposing of more than 2.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment.^[23] The dredging project is the most aggressive environmental effort ever proposed to clean up a river, and will cost GE about $460,000,000. GE began sediment dredging operations to clean up the PCBs on May 15, 2009.^[24] This stage (Phase One) of the cleanup was completed in October 2009, and was responsible for the removal of approximately 300,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, which was more than the targeted amount. Over 620 barges filled with sediment were transported to the processing facility on the Champlain Canal, and over 80 rail cars transported the dredged sediment to a waste facility in Andrews, Texas.^[25] The true scope of Phase One was about 100,000 cubic yards more than planned, and Phase Two will be expanded as a consequence. Before Phase two of the cleanup, GE was given the opportunity to opt out of the clean up efforts, but they chose to complete the project. Phase Two of the cleanup project, led by GE and monitored by the EPA, began in June 2011. This phase targets approximately 2.4 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a forty-mile section of the Upper Hudson River. Phase Two of the cleanup will take approximately 5 to 7 years to complete.^[26]

In 2009 dredging was started to remove contaminated sediments from the river bed and in 2010 General Electric agreed to finance and conduct a second dredging campaign at the Upper Hudson River between Fort Edward and Troy. These works will be supervised by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).^[27]

In 1991, further PCB pollution was found at Bakers Falls, near the former GE Hudson Falls factory, and a program of remediation was started.^[22] In August 1995, a 40-mile (64 km) reach of the upper Hudson was reopened to fishing, but only on a catch-and-release basis.^[22] Removal of contaminated soil from Rogers Island was completed in December 1999.^[22] In 2002, the EPA announced a further 2,650,000 cubic yards (2,030,000 m³) of contaminated sediments in the upper Hudson River would be removed.

In 1980, Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) agreed to drop its 17-year fight to build a pumped-storage hydroelectricity facility on Storm King Mountain, after a legal challenge by the non-profit environmental organization Scenic Hudson.^[28] The actions of local citizen organizations that led to the Con Ed decision spurred the creation of Riverkeeper, a non-profit environmental organization that grew into a global umbrella organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance.^[29]

Other calls for cleanup

Though the work is slow going, environmental advocacy groups have lent their voice to the problem of pollution. Scenic Hudson, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Hudson Riverkeeper, and the NRDC continue to push for more action from General Electric.^[30][31]

In 1976, because of concern over continuing high levels of PCBs in local fish and other aquatic organisms, and the unacceptable risk to the health of consumers of such fish, the NYSDEC banned all fishing in the upper Hudson River, as well as commercial fishing of striped bass and several other species in the lower Hudson River,^[3][22] and also issued advisories restricting the consumption of fish caught within a 20-mile (30 km) long segment of the Hudson River from Hudson Falls to Troy.^[3][32]

Opposition to cleanup

GE fought a media and political battle to avoid cleaning up the river and countered that dredging the river would actually stir up PCBs.^[33] In 2002, GE was ordered to clean up a 40-mile (64 km) stretch of the Hudson River it had contaminated.^[34]

References

External links

• Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site