Houghtaling Island
Photo courtesy Giles Ashford
On April 9, Riverkeeper filed comments opposing a dredging project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would place approximately 150,000 cubic yards of highly toxic soil on Houghtaling Island in New Baltimore.
New York has identified Houghtaling Island, one of the largest undisturbed parcels of land in the Hudson River estuary, as a critical habitat. Nevertheless, the Army Corps has used it for decades as a dump for dredged soil containing varying levels of PCBs, heavy metals, and other contaminants.
We will be submitting additional comments in the next month or so, including a set to the Department of Environmental Conservation, which must certify that the dredging conforms to state water quality requirements. We also plan to submit comments to the Department of State, explaining why we think they should disagree with the Army Corps’ coastal consistency certification.
