40 Rivers To Freedom

Today, General Electric begins dredging toxic PCBs from the Hudson River starting in Fort Edward, 40 miles north of the Federal Dam in Troy, NY.  “The General Electric plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls discharged PCBs into the river, contaminating sediment, for over 30 years before The Clean Water Act and a federal ban on PCBs in 1977- also the year that state officials shut down commercial fishing on the Hudson River, because PCBs had worked their way into the tissues of virtually ever species caught and sold along a 200 mile stretch from Manhattan on up.”

The $750 million Superfund cleanup, through some of my favorite fishing spots,  is supposed to take about 6 years to complete.

Today, The Daily Green published an article by Dan Shapley called, Poetic Injustice on the Hudson.  In it, he chronicles the events leading up to today’s cleanup, as well as a a short bio of one of the last commercial fisherman on the Hudson, Bobby Gabrielson.  Gabrielson passed away this week at the age of 79, and will be laid to rest today- “the same day GE’s dredges start their work nearly 200 miles upstream from his home and dock in Nyack, during the 400th anniversary year of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the river that now bears his name.”

The poetic injustice is that his funeral falls on the day that GE’s dredges start their work. The injustice is that more than 30 years lapsed between the time GE’s pollution was noted for the harm it has caused and the time the cleanup has begun. Those 30 years saw the livelihoods of many fishermen disappear, and it saw many fishermen disappear. It saw the taste for local fish disappear. It saw a part of regional culture damaged, possibly forever.

Like I said before, PCBs were hardly the only cause for commercial fishing’s decline. One can’t help but imagine, though, how things might have been different if the PCB black eye was removed in 1979 or 1989 or 1999 instead of 2009.

It’s a bright day for the Hudson. Even longtime environmental advocates are being quoted widely praising GE for putting together a first-class engineering system to remove contamination in a way that meets strict EPA standards. But it’s a day to mourn, too, for Bobby Gabrielson and for the generations that have lived without being able to fully appreciate the bounty and beauty of the majestic Hudson River.

My favorite stretches of the Hudson are catch and release only, not because of conservation groups trying to help fish populations, but because it’s just not safe to eat the fish.  For a long time, people weren’t even supposed to fish on the upper Hudson because PCB levels were so high.  (Not that I want to eat Smallmouth Bass, but I should at least have the option.)

Isn’t it crazy how abused and neglected our lakes and streams used to be?  Even crazier, is how abused and neglected they still are today.   All these people trying to be “green”, all this talk about carbon footprints, etc.- and I still can’t go fishing without seeing trash in my lakes and rivers.  Many times, I’ve felt myself wondering how people could have been so retarded to do the damage they did back in the day; but the fact is, we’re still retarded.