ABSTRACT
The bulk of the water in New York is oily, dirty, and germy. The bottom of the harbor is dirtier than the water. In most places, it is covered with a blanket of sludge that is composed of silt, sewage, industrial wastes, and clotted oil. Glaciation in the Pleistocene, beginning about two million years ago, influenced the depth of New York-New Jersey Harbor and the Hudson River. The harbor largely comprises tidal and freshwater marshes that are remnants of glacial lakes. Previous sand-mining operations in the lower harbor have left pockmarks in the harbor bottom. Consequently, another option considered for the disposal of dredged sediment was burial in these harbor-bottom pits. The Corps offered one option that they hoped would be considered positively given the scarcity of land in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area: island construction.
