The health of the Hudson River: a mixed bag

A couple of recent stories on the health of the Hudson River gave a picture of two steps forward, one step back.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation reported on the consequences of the spring 2011 flooding in much of upstate New York. It concluded that the release of PCBs during flooding was actually much less, due to the much-contested dredging of the Hudson in Fort Edward. 

By contrast, a report by the group Environment New York noted that, despite clean up efforts in recent years, the Hudson remains one of the most polluted waterways in the nation. The river's biggest polluter: Finch Paper in Glens Falls, just upriver from Fort Edward.

According to a search, neither story appears to have been covered by The Post-Star, the only daily newspaper in the Glens Falls/Fort Edward area.


Update: Several days after this blog entry appeared, The Post-Star finally got around to doing a piece on this story.

APA critic pleads guilty to pollution charges

Last year, the Post-Star published a controversial story on Adirondack Park Agency critic Leroy Douglas and his battles with the agency. A follow up: Adirondack Almanack reports that Douglas recently plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of pollution.

Hydofracking worse for environment than coal?

Hydraulic fracturing (know as 'fracking') is the controversial natural gas extraction process that's being proposed for much of central and southern New York. It's been controversial because the fracking represents a serious threat to safe drinking water. 


However, The Cornell Daily Sun reports on other major side effects of the extraction process. A university study concluded that hydrofracking may harm the environment even more than the mining of coal and will exacerbate the effects of climate change. This is significant because natural gas has long been touted as the cleanest fossil fuel.


“We looked at the greenhouse gas in comparison to conventional natural gas,” [Cornell Prof. Robert] Howarth said. “Our research showed that carbon dioxide is only part of the problem, and natural gas, which is mostly methane, is far more potent. Even small leakages have a large footprint, leading to our conclusion that natural gas actually has a bigger impact on global warming.”

Homeowners sue hydrofracker over poisoned drinking water

There is plenty of debate in New York about hydraulic fracturing (known as hydrofracking) in the southern part of the state. Fracking is a form of drilling which fractures the rock underneath the surface of the Earth to release natural gas. Supporters say that the hydrofracking industry would create countless jobs in southern New York. Opponents claim that the procedure has been shown to be a several threat to clean drinking water.

The non-partisan, non-profit journalism organization Pro Publica has covered this issue quite well (its excellent articles on the topic can be accessed here). It includes some pieces of the hydrofracking industry’s strident opposition to any sort of transparency.

Recently, the city of Buffalo became the first municipality in the state to ban the procedure. The vote was more symbolic than anything, given the city’s location, but opponents hope it triggers a loud wave of opposition to the dangerous procedure.

Many newspapers such as the Watertown Daily Times and Glens Falls Post-Star have editorialized for a ban on hydrofracking.

Nine homeowners in Elmira, near New York’s border with Pennsylvania (where fracking has been pursued with reckless abandon), have filed a lawsuit against a Colorado-based company claiming it was negligent in its drilling, construction and operation of two [hydrofracking] gas wells in Big Flats and that the company’s actions resulted in contamination to nearby water wells.

As government officials in Albany consider how to deal with the industry, they should remember that jobs and easy money are of little use if it destroys something as basic and fundamental as drinking water.

Local mill leading national polluter, says group

The Post-Star reports that Glens Falls' paper mill Finch Pruyn is the nation's 6th largest polluter of cancer-causing chemicals, the leading polluter in New York state. According to the group Environment America, Finch released into the Hudson River 26,541 pounds of carcinogens, the vast majority of which was formaldehyde.

The effects of climate change and pollution

I read with interest the top 100 science stories of 2007, as ranked by Discover magazine. I was struck by just how many stories involving climate change and pollution made the list.

Many people would rather fiddle while the Earth burns. But at the end of the day, tackling these serious global challenges is infinitely more important than whining about Al Gore's mansion.

Their #1 story explained the huge impact of China's unrestrained economic growth. And not just on China itself.

The country will soon surpass the United States as the world's largest polluter (in raw terms; the US will remain at the top... er bottom... of that list per capita). China's coal-fired power plants emit the world’s highest levels of sulfur dioxide (a major element of acid rain) and mercury, both of which rise high into the atmosphere and hitch a ride on air currents circling the globe.

Furthermore, a study found that three-quarters of the black carbon pollution in the atmosphere over the western United States originates in Asia. It is estimated that as much as 35 percent of all the mercury pollution in the western United States comes from abroad, and China is most likely the main culprit. According to the World Wildlife Fund, untreated waste has turned China’s Yangtze River basin into the single largest polluter of the Pacific Ocean.

Man-aggravated climate change is already hitting hard in many countries, including Australia. The Land Down Under is suffering through its worst drought in a milenmium.

"Australia is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the impact of climate change on water resources,” says Ross Young, executive director of the Water Services Association of Australia. “Many people thought there would be adequate time to adapt to less water. The lesson from Australia is that the shift has been very dramatic and has occurred in a very short period."



Some other climate change and pollution related stories in Discover's top 100...

-Soot Began Harming Arctic A Century Ago

-Quantifying Global Warming

-Acid Rain Intensifies Threat To Marine Life. Those of us who live in or near the Adirondacks already know the devastating ecological impact of acid rain caused by pollution from far away.

-Wastewater Decimates Minnows