ONE MILE OF THE HUDSON
Some Maps……
Prof Bopp
A) Hudson River Geography – Shows the Hudson and its major tributaries. Locations along the
main stem of the river are often designated by mile point (mp). An introduction to some
more significant “mile points” follows the map.
B) A much less “crowded” map of the Hudson River drainage basin containing significantly less
detail – e.g. tributaries to the lower Hudson and the Great Sacandaga Lake are not shown. A
more complete river/drainage basin map for the entire state will be shown in class.
C) A map of showing contours of average annual precipitation in the basin, a starting point for
our hydrology discussion.
D) Another important measurement for basic hydrology – The location of flow gaging stations
in the basin maintained by the US Geological Survey.
E) Average flows in the upper Hudson basin based on USGS gaging and compiled by Ted
Shuster.
F) & G) Maps focusing on the Great Sacandaga Lake. Our discussion of large floods in the
basin will include analysis of the contribution of the Sacandaga Subbasin to the upper
Hudson. We will pay particular attention to the potential for resuspension and transport of
PCB contaminated sediments.
H) A map of Superfund sites in the basin that will guide our discussion of particle-associated
contaminants.
Mile points – Locations along the main stem of the Hudson River are often specified by their
mile point (mp), the number of statute miles upstream of the Battery at the southern tip of
Manhattan Island. Statute Miles??? A statute mile is your common, ordinary everyday mile of
5280 feet. The reason that statute mile is specified is that one might have expected river miles to
be expressed in Nautical Miles (6076 feet).
Some significant mile points –
197 – Baker’s Falls in the town of Hudson Falls. The site of one of the GE capacitor plants that
discharged PCBs to the Hudson. The other major PCB input was from a second GE capacitor
plant located about 0.5 miles downstream in the town of Fort Edward.
188.5 – The Thompson Island Dam. Forms the Thompson Island Pool, the six-mile reach of the
upper Hudson that will be most intensively dredged under the EPA proposal to remove
contaminated sediments.
154 – The Green Island Dam (sometimes called Federal Dam or Troy Dam). This is the dam you
see when you look upstream while crossing the Collar City Bridge (Hoosic Street; Route 7). It is
the furthest downstream dam on the Hudson and just downstream of the confluence with the
Mohawk River. It divides the Hudson into the “upper Hudson” and “lower (or tidal) Hudson”.
90 – Kingston, NY. The stretch of river just downstream of Kingston is one of the few areas
other than New York Harbor where extensive recent sediment deposits have been found in the
middle of the channel. This makes it a prime area for collecting and dating sediment cores and
reconstructing contaminant chronologies.
75 – Poughkeepsie, NY. The largest city (ca. 75,000) that draws its drinking water directly from
the Hudson. This is also approximately the mile point reached by salty water from the ocean
during severe dry periods (summer 2002, for example).
65 – Chelsea, NY. Site of the pumping station that can supplement NYC drinking water during
extreme drought conditions. Note – you would expect to find salty water here during severe dry
periods (oops!).
54 – West Point. Foundry Cove, across the river from West Point, is the site of a former battery
factory. Discharges from this factory made sediments of the inner cove one of the richest
cadmium “ores” in the world! This is about the point that salty water reaches during low flow
periods of a “normal” year.
43 – Indian Point. Site of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Generating Facility, a major player in
the story of electrical power for the basin AND the source a nice stratigraphic marker that has
proven most useful in dating sediment cores!
23 – Hastings, NY. Site of an Anaconda Copper plant (featured in the Bill Moyers tape) and
another PCB story. Freshwater may reach about this far downstream during very high flow
events.
About 10 to about –3 – Main stem NY/NJ Harbor –Yes that’s –3, three miles downstream of the
Battery. The overall Harbor is complicated (see map I) and important. Location requires more
than a simple mp designation!
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