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Is the Hudson River drinkable?

An estimated 100,000 people in the Hudson Valley rely on the Hudson for their drinking water.



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The “Salt Front” is the location where the river is 100 ppm salinity. 100 ppm salinity falls within acceptable drinking water standards.

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Women under 50 and children under 15 should not eat any fish from the Hudson River, including striped bass. Women who eat highly contaminated fish and become pregnant may have an increased risk of having children who are slower to develop and learn. Some contaminants may be passed on to infants in mother's milk.

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Experts say it's safe to swim in most of the Hudson most of the time — though things get dicey after it rains.

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The short answer is “Yes!” The long answer is that it depends on when and where. Issues like sewage outflow and algal blooms keep many areas along the Hudson from being swimmable, particularly after rainfall.

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Seawater pushes into the Hudson and mixes with fresh water, making the river taste slightly salty. This mix of salt and fresh water is called brackish water.

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For Your Health- In 1976, the Upper Hudson River was closed to fishing due to extremely high amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fish. These levels posed a high risk of possible harmful health effects in humans. Since 1976, the manufacture of PCBs has been banned and their use phased out.

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Predators like blue crabs and sturgeons do eat zebra mussels, but have never been shown to control natural populations. Research on new control measures, including biological controls, is ongoing, but the changes we've seen to the Hudson's ecosystem probably are irreversible or at least long-lasting.

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Geology. The Hudson is sometimes called, in geological terms, a drowned river. The rising sea levels after the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent ice age, have resulted in a marine incursion that drowned the coastal plain and brought salt water well above the mouth of the river.

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Saving the River's Fish. For schools of migratory shad, sturgeon, river herring, blue crab, menhaden and striped bass, the Hudson is an unimpeded corridor from the Atlantic to their ancestral spawning grounds.

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The Hudson River lacked the necessary spawning and nursery capacity to maintain salmon. The first major tributary, the Mohawk River, entering from the west above Albany, was impassable due to the 70 foot falls at Cohoes.

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Yes, You Can Swim On Your Period. It's safe to hit the water on your period, as long as you wear a tampon or menstrual cup while you're swimming. We've got the facts on swimming on your period and what period products can help and which one's you should probably altogether avoid.

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Yes, Bull Sharks, Dogfish, Great White?, Whale. 25 different species live in the area, and while most won't spend much time in the river all are capable, though for short times as they are salt water specific.

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