Along with the banning of certain chemicals, such as lead in the mid-1970s, depollution and soil remediation work enabled the Bronx to gradually restore its river. ” We have come a long way through several decades of improving the environment, cleaning up water quality, better managing the environmenttraces Howard Rosenbaum, researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society, to the New York daily Gothamist. All this helps the overall environment and then leads to the recovery of these systems ».
Beyond the Bronx, the Port of New York also reached an unprecedented level of cleanliness in 2019, according to a rapport released by the city’s environmental protection department. The dramatic decrease in the dumping of toxic chemicals and human waste in the harbor, along with warming waters and rebuilding stocks of fish like the menhaden, have contributed to the growth of the New York dolphin population, according to one study from Columbia University and the Wildlife Conservation Society, published in June 2022 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
The long road in ecological restoration
Still, worrying amounts of runoff, sewage, animal waste and detritus still litter the Bronx River’s waters, including lead, according to Wildlife Conservation Society researcher John Sykes. : “ It takes a long time to clean up this messhe told the Washington Post. Looking at the river with your eyes alone does not tell you enough about its real condition. ».
