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New York Harbor Much Improved, Study Says
Associated Press, 4/26/04
New York - New York's harbor has improved dramatically in recent decades, with far fewer contaminants in waters, fish and bottom sediment and shrinking wetlands trying to stage a comeback, a report by two private environmental groups says.
Despite beneficial effects of the federal Clean Water Act that have helped a tenfold reduction in PCBs and other toxic pollutants, sewage overflows and industrial discharges remain a threat to localized waters and to marine life, especially shellfish, said the study.
Strict enforcement of laws has slowed the loss of shoreline habitat and fragile wetlands, mainly to dredging, filling and other encroachments, it said.
About 80 percent of the area's wetlands, some 300,000 acres, have vanished over the past century, and their protection and restoration should be "a public priority," the report said.
"New York harbor is much healthier than it was 30 years ago," Clay Hiles, executive director of the Hudson River Foundation for Science and Environmental Research, said in a statement released on Monday with the 82-page "State of the Estuary" report.
He said the challenge now is to "identify and control less obvious pollution sources that are tougher to manage."
The findings, compiled jointly by the foundation and the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program, were described as a comprehensive analysis of the harbor unprecedented in scope and relying mainly on data gathered by federal, state and local agencies.
New York Harbor was designated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 1987 as one of 28 estuaries of national significance, eligible for special protection and restoration.
For purposes of the study, the harbor was defined as the tidal estuary and tributaries north to the Tappan Zee Bridge and east to the Throgs Neck bridge on Long Island Sound.
Jane M. Kenny, the EPA's regional administrator, said the harbor "receives the pressure of constant use, including the daily waste of 10 million people."
The report said decades of uncontrolled industrial pollution had created high toxic levels in bottom sediment and in fish that continues to
threaten the harbor ecology and human health.
Sediment pollutants still exceed acceptable levels in some areas, especially around Staten Island and New Jersey waters. Mercury, DDT and dioxin compounds are most prevalent in the Hackensack and Passaic rivers, Newark Bay and the Arthur Kill, with Jamaica Bay of concern for some contaminants.
Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in fish began to decline in the 1970s due to federal enforcement, but women and children under 15 should still follow advisories on fish consumption issued by New York and New Jersey authorities, the study said.
Sewage pollution has been decreased dramatically through better
treatment, but antiquated facilities cannot handle the overflow during rainstorms, forcing the closing of beaches. Waste treatment also has allowed dissolved oxygen to increase, a benefit to marine life and water quality.
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