The Hudson River has an interesting history of pollution throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Most infamously, General Electric dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, into the Hudson River. I live in the widest part of the Hudson River, where a General Motors factory was once located. General Motors used to dump unused paint into the Hudson River so frequently that you could tell what color the cars made that day were because of the color of the river. This destructive treatment of the Hudson River became illegal in the 1970s with the implementation of the Clean Water Act. Since then, the Hudson River has become a lot less polluted, but PCBs still remain.
Though the New York Department of Conservation and others claim it is safe to swim in the Hudson, nobody actually does. Many are aware of the Hudson River’s history or are turned off by the murky, brown color of the water. However, the murkiness is a result of tidal currents and the salinity of the water suspending sediment in the water. The New York Department of Conservation believes that the Hudson River was probably brown colored before European settlement. The Hudson River has limited outdoor recreation today because of the way it has been treated and polluted in the past by industrial entities. If the Hudson River was clean and a more safe and popular place to swim and have other forms of outdoor recreation, I imagine my family and I would have a different connection to the landscape. Tourism might increase, and real estate values would increase. Homes near the river, or ones that have water views, are already outrageously expensive due to their proximity to New York City. I’m not sure if my family would be able to afford where we live if the Hudson River was clean.
Rockland Lake, which is next to my hometown, is a man-made lake once used for its ice. Before electric refrigerators, Rockland Lake’s ice was used for iceboxes and shipped down the Hudson River to Manhattan. Rockland Lake is right next to Hook Mountain, one of my favorite places to hike at home. Stone walls and foundations of buildings can be found in Hook Mountain state park due to its history in the ice industry. Now, these places are used for outdoor recreation, with hiking trails and bike paths. These places are where I have hiked the most, and my passion for outdoor recreation is what started my appreciation for the environment. Not only have these places created a sense of place for me, but they have led me to the place where I am today.
Works Cited
New York State Department of Conservation. (n.d.). How is the Hudson Doing? Retrieved from
https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/77105.html.
Riverkeeper. (n.d.). Hudson River PCBs. Retrieved from https://www.riverkeeper.org/campaigns/stop-polluters/pcbs/.