PCBs of the Hudson

Hudson River is a long river. Its mouth starts in upstate New York and flows southward to the open Atlantic Ocean. We, the Harbor School students, studied the lower part of the Hudson at Pier 17 located in Manhattan, NYC. At the beginning of this year, we had a serveral trips out on the Hudson working with environmentalists to see and understand what is happening to the Hudson River and what had occured to it in the past. Each time we arrived at the Hudson River we took water quality tests first, including infomation such as water temperature, turbidity (the water clarity measured by how far deep you can see through the water), salinity (the amount of salt contained in the water), and dissolved oxygen (the amount of oxygen mixed into the water, which is important to all marine organisms). These datas were recorded for future reference.

One issue that we're concerning so much about the Hudson River is that it is contaminated with a toxic chemicals called PCBs (Poly-chlorinated Biphenyl). As you may not know, PCBs were dumped into the River by General Electric Co. GE produces electricity by nuclear plants. While the plant processes nulcear fussion, tremendous of heat energy yielded. As a matter of fact, it is ver serious to keep the tank cool under a certain temperature in avoiding a melt down to happen. Thus, the GE had to find some ways to keep the tank's temperature stable and low, one way was to utilized the flowing Hudson, the second way they did was to use of a chemical - PCB. PCBs are usless when it is used, so the GE just dumped them right into the river, carelessly. Afterward, the Hudson River is contaminated with PCBs, then bad things can happen.

PCBs
Cancer-causing agent, affects reproduction and immune system, neurotoxilogical effects, toxic to liver in animal studies
Extremely high amounts in a poisoning incident in Japan affected infant birth weight and development.

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