Cleaning Up the Hudson River

CLEARWATER-master495Pete Seeger died on Monday Jan. 27, 2014 in New York City at the age of 94.  He celebrated every liberal cause imaginable but one that is close to our hearts was his involvement with the Clean Water Act.  Science Is My Specialty would like to acknowledge his help in passing the Clean Water Act and recognize his dedication to cleaning up the Hudson River. Seeger and his wife Toshi bought a 106-foot wooden sloop and began gathering allies to do something about the deplorable condition of the Hudson River.  Seeger was appalled to find out, in the spring of 1969, that  the river had bacterial concentrations 170 time safe levels.  Seeger and his friends decided to play concerts along the river and raised money for the cleanup by passing banjo cases around to the audiences that gathered.   A few years after buying his boat The Clearwater, Pete Seeger helped pass the federal Clean Water Act in 1972 by sailing it to Washington D.C. and performing a concert in the halls of Congress.  During the next three decades Pete Seeger continued to fight for the cleanup of PCBs and other pollutants in the river.   The boat later turned into an environmental organization that remains active today. To find out more about the Clearwater check out: http://clearwater.org/