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The Hudson river is the longest and most important river in the east coast American state of New York. A 64 kilometer stretch of the Hudson is also the nation's largest toxic waste site. Over a 30 year period ending with a government ban in 1977, the General Electric Company legally dumped 590 million kilograms of pollutants known as PCBs into the river. In 1984, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, targeted the river for cleanup, but it wasn't until last December at the end of the Clinton Administration that the Agency produced a working plan to remove the toxins from the river.
Should the federal government order General Electric to pay the estimated $460 million it will cost to remove the PCBs by dredging, as EPA has recommended? Or should the PCBs remain buried in the river, as opponents who are fearful that dredging would upset the economy of the region and release the suspected cancer-causing chemicals argue.
On a rainy day this May, at a dock in Garrison, New York, a group of school children are introduced to the Hudson River. They live about an hour's drive from the river, but many have never been on it before. They board the Clearwater, a 34 meter replica of the sloops that in the mid-18th century carried cargo up and down the Hudson.
Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger and a handful of river-lovers built and launched the Clearwater 30 years ago to dramatize the river's plight and to move citizens to take action to clean it up. On this day, the school children raise the sail, steer the boat and catch fish off the side in a big net.
Sean Madden runs the education program on board. He says with the passage of national and state clean air and water laws, the Hudson is cleaner than at any time since the Industrial Revolution. And, he says, it's up to these kids to keep it that way. "I want them to leave the boat basically feeling good about their experience, to go home and tell their parents that they went on the Hudson today, it was a beautiful place. It was an amazing place, and we should really do something about that. We should learn more. Down the road when they are students of biology or business or whatever (they study) that seed is planted and that connection is there. That will shape the rest of their lives."
The Clearwater sails a narrow stretch of the river framed by hills across from West Point, the United States Military Academy, a place where American history comes alive. The children learn about Henry Hudson, the English navigator who first explored the river in the early 17th century, and about the Revolutionary War battles that took place along its banks. They learn about the artists who set up their easels along the river more than 150 years ago to paint the landscape, and they learn about plankton.
"It's not a bird, it's not a plane. It's not superman. It's plankton," a teacher tells the children. "You guys know about the food chain, don't you. Well, the food chain is really important."
As they look at the plankton with magnifying glasses, one thing these 10-year olds already know is that they cannot eat the fish that eat the plankton. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has posted warning signs up and down the 500 kilometer river. That's because while you can drink the river's water and even swim, boat and wade in it, the sediment contains polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, persistent organic chemicals that the United States Environmental Protection Agency says are probable carcinogens and may cause neurological problems. PCBs have contaminated the plankton, which then contaminate the fish that eat them.
The PCBs in the river come from two General Electric Company plants on the Hudson that manufactured electric capacitors, important components in the transmission of electric current. Steve Ramsey, Vice President of Environmental Programs for General Electric, says beginning in the 1930s GE used PCBs as an insulating material in the manufacturing process. The chemicals were long-lived, could tolerate high temperatures and wouldn't explode or catch fire. "In fact PCBs were recommended, if not required by fire and building codes and (by) insurance companies which would rate electrical equipment recommended that they be used," Mr. Ramsey says. "So they were viewed for 40 or 50 years as a life saving chemical, as an important part of keeping people safe in the generation of electricity."