It has long been popular to bash New York City and anything associated with it as unhealthy and grimy, but the fact is that New York Harbor (and Hudson River) water quality has vastly improved over the last two decades. Several factors are at work; the biggest one is the construction and improvement of massive sewage treatement plants that were required under the federal Clean Water Act (although the Act was passed in 1972, New York City is just now finally getting all of its plants up to secondary treatment standards). Another factor has been the de-industrialization of the New York area and the Hudson River Valley, removing huge sources of industrial pollution from the watershed. The fact is that New York Harbor meets Health Department standards for swimming practically all the time. Long Island Sound, on the other hand, has been deteriorating. This is due in part to nitrogen loading from the New York City Sewage Treatment plants (which gets washed into Long Island Sound, but doesnt wash out) and the additional nitrogen loadings from massive suburban development (that's right, the stuff you put on your lawn today will be feeding an algae bloom in your favorite kayaking waters next week). New York Harbor benefits from regular flushing with ocean water through the Narrows. The past decade has seen a huge resurgence in recreational use of New York Harbor and the Hudson River, as Ralph can attest to. Kayaking in the Harbor would have been unthinkable ten or twenty years ago; now kayakers and sailors, and yes, even some swimmers are common. It's true that the Hudson will never be as clear as the ocean waters of Maine. It never was, because the Hudson carries a lot of natural silt from its drainage area. But you are no more likely to be swimming in "liquid fecal matter" in the Hudson than you are in a harbor in Maine that has a sewage treatment plant in it. And I would much rather be swimming in the Hudson than in the Chesapeake or the sounds in North Carolina, where massive agricultural pollutions has promoted the pfisteria bacteria, which causes open sores on fish and people and disorientation and memory loss in people. The hog farming industry in North Carolina produces more fecal matter each day than the entire population of New York state, and, unlike human waste, hog waste is discharged into the environment with no treatment whatsoever. Talk about yuck! (I am currently working with the environmental groups in North Carolina that have sued Smithfield to clean up its act). Pollution is a problem everywhere. I suspect I can point to a source of objectionable pollution in just about any harbor anywhere in the 50 states (except maybe Alaska). New York harbor is a wonderful environmental resource that serves a huge number of people. It is much cleaner than it was. Dont knock it. --Karl Coplan Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic Pace Law School -----Original Message----- From: Sailboat Restorations, Inc. [mailto:sailboatrestorations_at_worldnet.att.net] Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 12:08 PM To: kcoplan_at_law.pace.edu Cc: 'paddlewise' Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] [Fwd: Manhattan Island Swim] ralph wrote [snip] > I have seen plenty of fish on the river and in the harbor. Fish > jumping. Fish swimming near the surface. [snip] That's certainly encouraging. I should add to my earlier post (regarding medical waste and other pollution in LIS), that in one of the little coves I paddle to near Rye there are thousands and thousands of large oysters lining the floor of the cove. The cove is at an island with a few homes, and I asked a resident one day if he eats the oysters. He laughed and said that he wouldn't eat them raw, but he does throw a few on the grill and eat them He said that it was only in the last five years that they've been thriving again. Perhaps the waters are gradually getting better. But there's still so much horrific pollution (most of it illegal) going on in the area. . . I read recently that the president of the Sierra Club resigned in protest, saying (as best I recall) that the environmental movement was "fiddling while Rome burns." I hope he ends up being wrong, but I have my doubts. Mark *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> -----Original Message----- > From: Coplan, Karl [mailto:KCoplan_at_law.pace.edu] > Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 8:34 AM snip > Pollution is a problem everywhere. I suspect I can point to > a source of > objectionable pollution in just about any harbor anywhere in > the 50 states > (except maybe Alaska). My guess is that almost any harbour in Alaska that has humans living on its shores has raw human waste in it. "Outfall" plumbing systems are not uncommon in many areas. Even here in Juneau there are still a number of homes located along Gastineau Channel that only have macerator type septic systems that drain directly into the water. Juneau is changing this slowly - and at what will end up being a substantial cost to those homeowners. I actually helped do a remodel job on a tidewater house in Ketchikan where the original plumbing consisted of a pipe draining onto the rocks below and only high tide would dissipate the waste. We changed that!! Dave Seng Juneau, Alaska *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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