By Matt Hund
Wow, what an amazing tour! This is the tour of "America's First River" I'm speaking of, in which we saw the GE plant responsible for PCB pollution of the Hudson, a large portion of the river (including locks 7 and 8) and Saratoga battlefield. It was so great to hear all of the different sides of this issue.
First up was GE representatives at the water treatment facility on the Hudson. Very good presentation of a plan to fix the river that has apparently been in the works for 25 years or so.
Then across the river to the hydro plant to listen to scientists from the DEC, et. al., discuss the river and local implications.
Next, we headed to Saratoga battlefield...
where a plethora of speakers offered points of view from the NOAA's environmental resuscitation approach to a woman whose home was taken away to turn into a dump site for PCB's.
I personally took the opportunity to speak with a gentleman representing the Sierra Club who was very knowledgeable on local politics and the whole PCB issue.
Oh, and don't forget the entire bus ride full of speakers including a very interesting law discussion, and a speech by two people who covered the PCB issue for newspapers in the past.
Very good tour; hopefully representative of what can be expected of SEJ conferences!
Comments