A plan is taking shape to clean up a huge pollution site in the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie that has been a source of carcinogenic coal tar to the estuary for more than 100 years.

For nearly 40 years starting in 1911, a 12-inch pipe at the site discharged coal tar -- a brown, toxic sludge that includes nearly a dozen carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Since the pipe was shut off in 1950 the pollution hasn’t stopped, as a nine-acre toxic blanket of sludge at the river bottom has been releasing bubbles of coal tar to the water. That’s about the equivalent of seven professional football fields of coal tar, and it happens to be in important habitat for endangered Atlantic sturgeon. It's part of the deep water habitat that is "one of the one of the largest and most well known spawning areas

for Atlantic sturgeon and overwintering areas for shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River," according to the Department of State's designation of the reach as a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat.

In some parts of this contaminated swath, the coal tar is four-feet deep. "Anywhere in that zone, if you were walking on the bottom, you would be walking on coal tar," DEC project manager Henry Willems said at the October 27 public meeting. There are areas where pure coal tar acts like "little volcanoes of coal tar bubbling away." Other speakers compared the oily mess to the villianous pool of silvery liquid metal that reconstituted itself as Arnold Schwarzenegger's nemesis in the movie Terminator II.

You can ride the elevator to the awe-inspiring Walkway Over the Hudson State Park, and all the while watch coal tar bubble to the surface and bloom into rainbow sheens that float with the current. This occurs as organic matter on the river bottom decomposes, releasing carbon dioxide that mobilizes the coal tar as it rises to the surface. You can take in the commanding view of the Hudson to the north, and if your gaze drops from the Crum Elbow down to the footings of the former railroad bridge, you’ll see the coal tar bubbling out. If you turn and take in the majestic view framed by the Mid Hudson Bridge to the south, and look down, you’ll see those sheens drifting toward the sand bar at the mouth of the Fallkill Creek, where anglers can easily cast a line right into the oily pollution.

The manufactured gas plant at the site operated for four decades, and also used coal tar from Kingston and Newburgh plants to generate electricity. Manufactured gas plants were the utilities of their era, turning coal into gas, and pumping that gas to homes through a series of pipes. Many of our oldest communities on the Hudson had manufactured gas plants, and the Department of Environmental Conservation has been working for more than a decade to clean them up, one by one.

This site, one of the last to be cleaned up, is also one of the largest and most difficult, due to the steep underwater slopes, and deep water and gas and electric lines that cross the Hudson here. A predecessor company to Central Hudson Gas & Electric Co., now a subsidiary of the multinational corporation Fortis, is responsible for the cost and execution of the cleanup the DEC determines is necessary. (The company indicated at the public meeting October 27 that the cost will be borne locally, without any assistance from the parent company.) The project is being executed under the state Brownfields program, which provides the company with tax credits of up to 50% of the cost. (The DEC indicated at the public meeting October 27 that there may not be any tax credits for this project.)

The stakes for the cleanup are high. We have one chance to get the cleanup right for the next century. The DEC’s estimated $57.5 million preferred plan includes dredging the coal tar blanketing the river mud, and capping the contamination with a bentonite concrete where the slope is steep and utility lines cross. As with all cleanups, the questions about the best cleanup option revolve around technical options, habitat restoration -- and cost. A second alternative includes dredging the less-contaminated steep slopes of the Hudson river bottom, at a total cost estimated at $110 million.

Here’s another cost that we should consider in the equation: This pollution has been ongoing for more than a century. It's because of industrial pollution like this that children and any woman who may become pregnant have been advised to eat no fish from the Hudson River. Not one fish from this, one of the greatest estuaries, one the most biologically productive bodies of water on the planet.

Riverkeeper is carefully reviewing the cleanup proposed at this stage, and will be urging the most aggressive possible action.

Public comments on the DEC’s proposal must be received by Nov. 20. To learn about the proposal and how to comment, read this fact sheet. Project documents can be also reviewed at Adriance Memorial Library, 93 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601; phone: 845-485-3445.