Colloquium to Explore Contaminants in the Hudson

NEW PALTZ — Exactly how polluted is the Hudson River? How did the current situation evolve, and what will be the fate of this water system? Between the crafty advertising and legal banter, the issue has become cloudier than the river itself.

Find out the “real deal” at the State University of New York at New Paltz on Friday, Nov. 30 at a colloquium titled “Timing is Everything: PCBs & Other Contaminants in the Hudson.” It will be held at 2 p.m. in Lecture Center 112, followed by a reception in the Lecture Center Lobby.

“The preservation of our natural environment has become an issue of growing concern as the impact of civilization on our ecosystems has taken an ever-increasing toll,” said David Clark, SUNY New Paltz mathematics professor and associate dean of the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering. “In order to confront environmental problems effectively, we must first understand the scientific mechanisms that underlie them.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute environmental geochemist Dr. Richard Bopp will illustrate a multi-contaminant, basin-wide perspective on pollution in the Hudson at this second colloquium in a new series instituted by SUNY New Paltz’ School of Physical Sciences and Engineering. Discussion will focus on radiochemical dating as a method of tracing the evolution and fate of contaminants in our water systems and soil. Specific attention will be given to the problem of PCB transport in the Hudson, the fate of dioxin contamination from a Superfund site on the lower Passaic River, and atmospheric deposition of metals in the Hudson River Basin.

“A case in point of considerable local concern is the problem of the PCBs that General Electric dumped in the Hudson River,” said Clark. “While a decision has been made to dredge the river, the manner and extent of this dredging remains a matter of active debate,” he said.

The School of Physical Sciences and Engineering — consisting of the departments of chemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics and physics — has only recently been developed at SUNY New Paltz under the leadership of its own dean as part of an ongoing realignment of schools at the university. Its dean, John Harrington, leads the school toward its goal of building a center of teaching and research in mathematics and the sciences.

The next lecture in the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Colloquium Series will take place on February 13. It is titled “Cell Phones and Power Lines: What are the Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields?” and will be given by Dr. David O. Carpenter, director of SUNY Albany’s Institute for Health and the Environment.

For further information on the colloquiums in this series, please contact David Clark, chair of the colloquium committee, at (845) 257-3728.