Exposure of Pollutants within NYC’s Natural Water System
New York City is located on a large natural harbour along the Atlantic coast. Surrounded by numerous water bodies, it manages its natural water system in a calculated manner to preserve the water quality and the rich marine ecosystem. The five boroughs, situated where the Hudson River meets the North Atlantic Ocean, is occupied by rivers, ponds, lakes, basins, creeks, bays, canals, etc. Hudson River, East River, and Jamaica Bay are the major rivers in the area. These water bodies are monitored and regulated by the city’s Environmental Protection Management to maintain its natural environment for recreational, conservational, and commercial purposes. For instance, the Hudson River becomes a site for people to swim in. It is also a breeding ground for many aquatic species, some of which are then brought into the market for human consumption.
Hudson River, the largest river in New York City, originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through New York Harbor. As stated, the river is sourced from a small lake called Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains and flows through forest and farmland as well as narrow channels with steep banks and forested mountain slopes. The river goes through Hudson Falls, Mohawk River near Troy, Federal Dam at Troy, Hudson Highlands, Haverstraw, the cliffs of the Palisades, and ends up in the New York Harbor. The Hudson River basin is 13,400 square miles in total and 93% runs through New York State. There are three different parts to the basin which is divided as; the upper Hudson River, lower Hudson River, and the Mohawk River basins. Each basin differs in terms of hydrologic characteristics.
The vast NYC water bodies are home to many sea creatures. The Hudson River itself is a habitat to more than 200 types of fishes, 19 kinds of rare birds and 140 rare plants. Within the Hudson River, there are a total of 35 habitats which explains as to the diversity of marine species. The water off Manhattan is rather salty where you can spot seahorses, sea robins and flounders and moving upriver the habitat is primarily freshwater which is home to sunfishes, black bass, yellow perch, and a few northern pikes. The Humpback Whales are under a conservation watch and are increasing in population due to the years of efforts, they can be spotted near the Statue of Liberty and up to the George Washington Bridge. The water nymph is an aquatic plant that lives in the Hudson River and can’t be found anywhere else on earth. All of these magnificent organisms enrich the Hudson River as a much preserved natural site admired by many fishermen and citizens.
However, since industrialization took hold on the river banks, the health of the natural water system has suffered tremendously. For many New Yorkers, the idea of swimming in the East River is no different than snuggling down into the toilet seat. Skeptics often ask Capri Djatiasmoro, the race director for Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers, who has participated in an annual marathon swim around the island of Manhattan, if she gets inoculation shots before entering the East River. “Oh yes, we do shots,” she says. “After a swim we do shots of tequila or Bacardi. That will kill any bug you pick up.”
People are advised to not catch or eat fish from the river due to heavy contaminations. During heavy rainfall, rainwater will run off the city’s streets and industrial properties, along with raw sewage, which then gets discharged into the city’s waterways. About 21 billion gallons of this combined sewage end up in the city’s waterways annually – and this sewage cocktail ends up getting dumped into the East River about 70 times a year. A bacteria known as enterococci flows into the river which can be commonly found in sewage. It is responsible for causing numerous infections in humans and other animals. Despite the abuses of the ecosystem, life is still fighting strong. A Newtown Creek Alliance manager described that the creek is bustling with life, from great egrets to horseshoe crabs and fish jumping out of the water.
Fortunately, the industries that once polluted the waterfront died off and the city spent $45 billion to improve water quality including upgrading sewage filtration management over the last four decades. Plastic bags and brown muck can still be seen pooling around the rocks at the riverside, but the middle of the river is clean and ever-moving.
Besides the sewage overflow, PCB contamination is also detrimental to the NYC natural water system. PCB’s or Polychlorinated Biphenyls are industrial products or chemicals used in the past as insulating material in electric equipment, in heat transfer fluids, lubricants, and in a wide range of products like adhesives, paints, coatings, and plasticisers. The commercial production of PCBs started in the 1920s. More than 1.5 billion pounds were manufactured before they were banned in the 1970s and 80s. About 10% of the initial production still remains in the environment and some electrical equipment in use today contains PCBs. It’s estimated that around 1.3 million pounds of different types of PCBs were dumped into the Hudson River by General Electric from 1946 until 1977, when they were banned.
Since most PCBs don’t dissolve in water, they settle into the ground of lakes, riverbeds and coastal sediments. This way they can enter the food chain and work its way up through bioaccumulation and biomagnification and pose damage to people and animals. This means that when PCBs enter the body they tend to be absorbed by fat tissue, thus accumulating in the system, and when it works its way up in the food chain it magnifies its concentration in bigger predators that eat a larger quantity of smaller organisms that are affected by PCBs. Exposure to PCBs can occur in different ways: through air after evaporation, through water consumption, and skin contact, but the most common source of exposure is from eating contaminated fish.
There have been many studies regarding the effects of exposure to PBCs in the human body and the results determined that PCBs affect different areas of the body. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the Environmental Protection Agency, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and The National Toxicology Program classify PCBs as a probable human carcinogen. The EPA estimated an increased cancer risk as high as 1 in 2500 for people eating certain species of fish from the Hudson River; this being a thousand times higher than the EPA’s goal for protection.
Other studies have shown that PCBs can have developmental effects on unborn children when exposition occurs during pregnancy, causing significant neurological and motor control problems, including lowered IQ and poor short-term memory. It can have hormonal effects on men and women causing shortened menstrual cycles, reduced sperm counts, altered sex organs, and premature puberty. In another study of adolescents Mohawk males in New York State, PCBs were shown to upset the balance of thyroid hormones, which can have effects on growth as well as intellectual and behavioral development. Finally, other studies have shown that PCBs may accelerate the cognitive and motor dysfunction found in normal aging and are associated with some measures of memory and learning and depression among adults 55-74 years of age.
Even Though PCBs have detrimental effects on the human body, in the summary of our survey, 84.2% of people don’t even know about PCBs. In the survey, 42.1% of the survey participants are from the United States and 57.9% from Asia. Most of them have stayed in New York for about 1-2 years, only 5.3% of participants have stayed for 3-4 years. Among them, 57.9% of people often go to parks during the time they live in New York. And some of them show their affection to the parks. People who lived in New York love going to nature and parks for outdoor activities, however, 63.2% of them know little about the natural water system in New York City, and 10.5% of them don’t understand at all.
The answers for the thoughts about waterbody in New York City, it gives us the surprise that they have various responses. One said, much of that water is polluted or man-made, the other said they blended into the city, therefore they may not be so clean. Some of them feel the river is relatively clean and share a great view. Then, We also compared the differences of waterbody between New York City and where they live currently. Nearly half of them said their city has more natural lakes surrounding the city, not the case in New York City, most of the lakes are man-made, and not all parks have lakes.
The survey indicates that no one has swum in the Hudson River. Some of them think the Hudson River is exquisite and only few know its serious pollution problems. Only 47.4% of participants know the Hudson River is very polluted in some parts. In the end, we also ask participants for some suggestions on solving the pollution. Overview of all the answers show most of them hope that there should be more management on waste disposal. One answer also said that the public should deal with wastes responsibly rather than dumping toxins into the water. Proper management of waste disposal would help solve the issue of pollutants.
The government management has acknowledged the damage that has been done to the river system and is working with the surrounding conservation organizations and foundations to maintain the Hudson River’s natural ecosystem. The Hudson river foundation (HRF) was founded in 1981 to solve the problem of coexistence of river ecology and human power stations.
Aside from the Hudson River water system management, other major water bodies are under the government’s supervision and protection. Many conservation agencies such as ‘World Wide Fund for Nature’ (Commonly known as WWF) and water quality monitoring companies have been working together to control the watersheds, flow rates and water safety of New York City’s water bodies. These autonomous water conservation programs work with the city’s existing long-term control programs (LTCP) maintained the ecology and functioning of the water.
In recent years, these organizations have been collecting the opinions of the general public and proposing solutions to the government, participating in a series of decision-making systems, also spreading knowledge about the river to the public. With the existence of such foundations, our understanding of the river will be more comprehensive, and the protection of the river will be the icing on the cake. In 2017, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city’s harbors are “cleaner and healthier than it had been in more than a century,” a great result of upgrading the wastewater system to combat the natural water system failure.
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Group Project by:
Citra Luna Martha
Jonga Fan
Angelina Fan
Wenyi Wang
Laura Mochales
