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Audio Feature: Hudson River stories
Mar 03, 2018 10:55 am
Here are some stories from the Hudson River this week. Click here to hear an audio version of this report. (4:14)
• The Stevens Institute reports temperatures this week in the Hudson River at Schodack Island were between 34 and 40 degrees, slightly warmer then last week.
• Kirk Moore in Workboat reports that towing accidents were up slightly in 2016, including the sinking of the tugboat Specialist after it hit a construction barge on the Hudson River near Catskill. That's according to the recently released report from the National Quality Steering Committee, a joint endeavor of the Coast Guard and the American Waterways Operators. There was also an increase in 2016 in "less serious reported tugging vessel incidents in 2016 with 1,231, up from 1,098 incidents during 2015. Of those, 84% were classed as 'low intensity.'" The good news was oil spills from tank barges were at 32,202 gallons in 2016, down from 147,070 gallons in 2015. Read the full story in Workboat.
• Amanda Petrusich writes in The New Yorker how she's been wandering through the RamsHorn-Livingston Sanctuary in Catskill during her lunch breaks from her artist residency at the Catwalk. She spots a bald eagle, and many other birds, and ponders the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. That federal law outlaws anyone from trying to “take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations.” Her bird watching in Catskill leads her to consider Wyoming-based Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney's amendment added to HR 4239, or the secure American Energy Act, help energy operators from being held accountable for, "bird deaths caused by oil-waste pits, transmission lines, gas flares," and other causes. “Our operators take multiple precautions to ensure migratory birds, as well as other wildlife, are not injured during operations, but if these precautions fail, the current language could impose criminal liability for the taking of the bird even though it’s accidental,” Cheney wrote in a press release. The bill will likely be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives soon. Petrusich ends her Catskill bird-watching story, "Now they are coming for the birds." Read the full story in The New Yorker.
• The Stevens Institute reports temperatures this week in the Hudson River at Schodack Island were between 34 and 40 degrees, slightly warmer then last week.
• Kirk Moore in Workboat reports that towing accidents were up slightly in 2016, including the sinking of the tugboat Specialist after it hit a construction barge on the Hudson River near Catskill. That's according to the recently released report from the National Quality Steering Committee, a joint endeavor of the Coast Guard and the American Waterways Operators. There was also an increase in 2016 in "less serious reported tugging vessel incidents in 2016 with 1,231, up from 1,098 incidents during 2015. Of those, 84% were classed as 'low intensity.'" The good news was oil spills from tank barges were at 32,202 gallons in 2016, down from 147,070 gallons in 2015. Read the full story in Workboat.
• Amanda Petrusich writes in The New Yorker how she's been wandering through the RamsHorn-Livingston Sanctuary in Catskill during her lunch breaks from her artist residency at the Catwalk. She spots a bald eagle, and many other birds, and ponders the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. That federal law outlaws anyone from trying to “take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations.” Her bird watching in Catskill leads her to consider Wyoming-based Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney's amendment added to HR 4239, or the secure American Energy Act, help energy operators from being held accountable for, "bird deaths caused by oil-waste pits, transmission lines, gas flares," and other causes. “Our operators take multiple precautions to ensure migratory birds, as well as other wildlife, are not injured during operations, but if these precautions fail, the current language could impose criminal liability for the taking of the bird even though it’s accidental,” Cheney wrote in a press release. The bill will likely be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives soon. Petrusich ends her Catskill bird-watching story, "Now they are coming for the birds." Read the full story in The New Yorker.