Over the last few years there has been a big improvement in the quality of
the air and waterways in New York City. In earlier years the city's docks
suffered heavy decline and heavy shipping moved from Manhattan to a
superport in New Jersey. As far as the roads are concerned, it won't take
visitors long to spot the large potholes and the regular floods that appear
every couple of weeks and the general state of disrepair and untidyness. Now
that the Staten Island garbage dump has finally closed, the city needs to
find a new location for its garbage.
Over 200 million gallons of sewage per day used to be dumped in the Hudson
River until the opening of the sewage treatment plant in 1986. Some of the
worst pollution in the Hudson River came from the General Electric
Manufacturing plant near Albany, which dumped polychlorinated biphenyls into
the river, poisoning the fish supply until it finally closed. The New York
health officials say the fish in the river are safe to eat nowadays but it
would be at your own discretion to do so.
Ever since the tragedy of September 11th 2001, the air quality in New York
has been a hot topic for debate, with environment agencies and community
groups all taking air samples in an effort to find out just what is floating
about and what is contained in the air particles.
One Department of Labour report does state that "all the dust that settled
from the collapse of the Twin Towers must be assumed to contain asbestos".
An extraordinary amount of emergency personnel have suffered a nasty cough
since September 11th, which has been dubbed "World Trade Center Cough". New
York residents have received reimbursements for heavy duty air purifiers
they have had installed and Mayor Bloomberg has set up an air-quality
hotline.
The only problems that visitors to New York will have is the heavy noise
pollution from the jack hammers, trucks, sirens and alarms that are part and
parcel of everyday life in New York!!
