After seven years of research and consensus building, a coalition of 70 stakeholder organizations working towards a more sustainable New York / New Jersey Harbor Watershed unveiled its final report Thursday.
The NY/NJ Harbor Consortium of the New York Academy of Sciences examined the causes of ongoing pollution to the harbor and developed management strategies for five important contaminants: mercury, cadmium, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The Harbor Consortium members, though representing diverse and sometimes competing interests, were able to achieve consensus on the industrial sources of contaminants in the harbor and ways to prevent them from entering the watershed.
Their report, "Safe Harbor: Bringing People and Science Together to Improve the New York / New Jersey Harbor," was presented and discussed at a New York Academy of Sciences gathering of scientists, engineers and other technical experts.
The consortium originated from a 1998 EPA proposal, and has been meeting to explore ways to identify the sources of the five contaminants in the watershed and make recommendations to reduce their environmental impacts.
"The harbor is not only an environmental treasure but the lifeblood of some of the most efficient aspects of our regional economy," said Charles Powers, the consortium's chair for the life of the project.
"The harbor deserves concerted efforts from all of us - big institutions, small municipalities and families - to make it even healthier," said Powers. "Remarkably, key people from 70 institutions were able over seven years to agree on literally hundreds of ways - based on the data - to do just that."
Most of the recommendations for mercury and cadmium have been adopted or are being considered for action. The consortium recognizes that recommendations can require years to implement and expects its recommendations in the three more recent reports on PCBs, dioxins, PAHs to be "executed in due course."
Results and recommendations from this research have been published and released in stages beginning in 2002 and ending in 2007 with the publication of the final report on PAHs and the final report. The reports and their many recommendations are online at: http://www.nyas.org/programs/harbor.asp
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