Dredging of Hudson River begins (5/15/09)

The Hudson, like the Charles, has a sediment problem.  Unlike the Charles, the source of the Hudson’s PCBs and other nasties has been traced to an organization that can be held accountable — GE.  After a lengthy court battle the clean-up has begun.  Estimates are that it will be, initially, a $750 million dollar operation but possibly becoming “many times that.”  That’s going to hurt, even for a company of GE’s size.

The probability of any similar, near-term spot-dredging in the Charles is next to nil in my opinion.  All of the original pollutant-spewing factories and mills along the Charles are now long out of operation and their respective companies are most likely long dissolved.

For the swimming race we have a simple solution to the sediment problem — we avoid it alltogether.  Participants enter and exit the Charles via dock ladders.

You can read the rest of the NY Times article here.