“America’s first river” is a long way from total salvation, but 50 years ago, two men stepped up to rescue it.
Peter Dykstra writes for Environmental Health News
On April 1, 1969, a garrulous sportswriter released a book about his true passion. A month later, a smiling folksinger launched a refurbished boat – his true passion.
Robert Boyle and Pete Seeger never saw eye-to-eye on many of the details, but both men played key roles in launching one of America’s most storied conservation efforts.
Boyle, who penned many classic Sports Illustrated stories since the magazine’s first year in 1954, was an avid fly fisherman who wrote The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History. Seeger, blacklisted during the McCarthy era and arguably the most unlikely member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, launched the Clearwater, a Hudson River sloop that became an icon of conservation and activism.
In the unusual venue of SI, Bob Boyle wrote about his beloved river, and was among the first to cover the Northeast’s acid rain epidemic. His stories on widespread PCB contamination in the Hudson from two General Electric factories far upstream helped spur a billion-dollar cleanup, and the eventual ban on PCB’s in the 1970’s. Thus, a magazine known for covering football, golf, boxing and swimsuits became an environmental leader.
In the mid-60s, Boyle got involved in opposing the Storm King project. Con Edison, New York City’s utility, planned to hollow out Storm King Mountain, 60 miles north of the city, to build a pump storage power facility.
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Environmentalists triumphed in a lengthy court battle, and Con Ed abandoned the project in what is considered an early landmark in environmental law.
The compulsively genial Pete Seeger helped build an organization that captured the imagination of millions who lived in the Hudson watershed. The Clearwater sailed the mighty river from Albany to the Statue of Liberty, giving kids and adults what was often their first exposure to environmental values.
Two of the early Clearwater crewmembers went on to skipper their own eco-boats: Peter Willcox was captain of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, for years; and John Cronin became the first Hudson Riverkeeper.
Cronin dogged factories, railroad yards, municipal sewer systems, and other polluters for years, scoring impressive successes with the help of Boyle and environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
