Proposal floated for Hudson River research center

Stretching nearly 300 miles, the Hudson River has been an inspiration for artists and environmentalists and an engine for industrialists.

January 5, 2000
Web posted at: 11:52 a.m. EST (1652 GMT)

By Environmental News Network staff

A proposed research institute in upstate New York is expected to release a flood of continuous information about the Hudson River.

Backed by New York Governor George Pataki, the Henry Hudson Institute for Riverine and Estuarine Research would establish a scientific center dedicated to the history and current ecology of the Hudson River.

Pataki said the international center would supply essential information about rivers and estuaries throughout the world while monitoring the economic potential of the Hudson River.

With a proposed staff of 500 and an annual operating budget of about $50 million, the center would carry out research on everything from fish and plant life to pollution to water currents. The model for the project is Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, the country's premier institute for oceanic research and education.

"Seventy years ago, a group of visionary marine biologists founded the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts," Pataki said. "Today, it is the best (of its kind) in the world, but there is no such center for the study of rivers. New York will remain a national leader in protecting the environment by stepping forward to create a new Woods Hole that will focus on rivers and estuaries."

The proposed institute would expand on measures already being implemented in the cleanup of the Hudson River, Pataki added.

The recovery of the Hudson, a mission of many since the 1960s, is one of the great success stories of the modern environmental movement. Once a dying ecosystem contaminated by industrial waste, the Hudson is cleaner now than in several decades. Nevertheless, the future of the 275-mile river is threatened by dwindling fish stocks and a rash of disjointed development proposals.

"Every day we make decisions that could have a profound impact on the Hudson," said John Cronin, director of Riverkeeper Inc., a conservation group that closely monitors the river's health. Cronin hopes the proposed research institute will lead to a more comprehensive and coordinated planning process.

"Laws and advocacy are not enough to secure the Hudson's future," he said. "We are living in an abundance of ignorance, understanding only about a tenth of a percent of this very complex eco-system. The Hudson deserves the same attention that Woods Hole gives to oceans."

Cronin warns that the institute must be kept independent of business, politics and public interest groups. "The Hudson's agenda cannot have any more strings attached. The future should be based on the standard philosophy that biological integrity is the limiting factor."

Pending approval by the New York legislature, the research center is expected to be operating in five to 10 years. Pataki said he will push legislators to spend $1 million to set up a planning task force to determine where along the Hudson the institute will be located, how it will be funded and who will oversee its operations.

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