Title Engineering Transformations of New York Canal System and Long-Term Environmental and Public Health Implications
Author(s) Kenneth Ray Olson
Affiliation Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana
Country United States of America
Contribution type Conceptual paper
Thematic area War and Land-Use Systems, War and Freshwater Systems, War and Health
Conference framework connection • Analytical Track AT-01 — provisional title to be defined• Analytical Track AT-02 — provisional title to be defined• Analytical Track AT-03 — provisional title to be defined• Analytical Track AT-04 — provisional title to be defined• Analytical Track AT-05 — provisional title to be defined• Analytical Track AT-06 — provisional title to be defined• Analytical Track AT-07 — provisional title to be defined
Abstract During the last century, the New York Canal System has become an economic engine as humans re-engineered the rivers by creating canals, channels and bottomlands with extensive systems of levees, locks and dams, floodwalls, and reservoirs. The New York Canal System was dug through the upland from the Mohawk River to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. A channel, Kill Van Kull, was dredged and deepened from the Newark Bay to the New York Bay to connect the Passaic and Hudson Rivers. The primary objectives of this article are to examine the complex and ever-changing Hudson, Mohawk, and Passaic River landscapes and their systems; review historical impacts of climate, chemical and industrial manufacturing, channel construction, economic and population growth, pollution and efforts to manage waterways with engineered structures; and make recommendations on future management to protect soil and water resources and facilitate social, economic, and ecosystem balance. The Hudson River with its abundant water supply and capacity to transport raw materials and finished goods, fuelled the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s. Settlements and industries along the Hudson River valley flourished, creating jobs, expanding communities, bringing economic prosperity to the northeast region of the United States. In its wake followed an era of industrial pollution (PCBs) that left an ugly mark on the river celebrated for its beauty and pristine waters. In the 1950s, Diamond Alkali began to manufacture Agent Orange at Newark, New Jersey on the Passaic River. Diamond Alkali workers stated in court testimony that they were exposed to Agent Orange by-product dioxin TCDD. Similar chemical plants, making 2,4,5-T with unknown amounts of dioxin TCDD in West Virginia and Europe, exploded in 1949 and 1953. Medical doctors were able to determine dioxin TCDD caused chloracne and cancers in chemical plant workers. The USEPA estimated the cost of the cleanup and natural resource restoration of the lower 27 km of the Passaic River and Newark Bay to be US$12 billion. These cases illustrate how engineering solutions aimed at enhanced navigation and mitigating industrial and chemical plant pollution and urban sanitation challenges can reduce immediate health risks while generating long-term ecological and epidemiological consequences.
Key points ● Engineering transformations of rivers and canals can create powerful economic corridors, but they also reshape hydrology, land use, sediments, and long-term contaminant pathways.● The Hudson, Mohawk, and Passaic River systems illustrate how industrial growth and military-related chemical production can leave persistent toxic legacies in freshwater, soil, sediment, and estuarine environments.● PCBs, dioxin TCDD, and related contaminants show that engineered waterways must be managed not only as navigation or flood-control infrastructure, but as long-term exposure systems affecting workers, ecosystems, communities, and public health.
Keywords war, armed conflict, soil contamination, freshwater systems contamination, chemical and industrial pollution, food security, remediation, occupational health and safety. 
Main discussion question How can we recognize the long-term environmental and health consequences of engineered freshwater systems before economic infrastructure becomes a persistent contamination pathway?
OJS publication link https://pollution-diseases-ojs.org/index.php/pd/article/view/25
Note. Analytical TracksIn addition to the main thematic areas, the conference programme will include several cross-cutting analytical tracks. These tracks will be defined during the preparation of the programme, based on the submitted abstracts and the emerging links between presentations.At the preliminary stage, abstracts may be assigned to provisional analytical tracks marked as AT-01 to AT-07. Final track titles will be announced after the Scientific Committee has reviewed the submitted materials.