Boats on the Hudson
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- December
- 19
The following report comes from our colleague Jonathan Bandler:
So what was up with all those commercial boats in the middle of the Hudson?
Over the past week or so, dozens of fuel barges were lined up between Hastings-on-Hudson and Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx with seemingly no place to go.
The Journal News got calls about it and so did local police and Riverkeeper.
Turns out, they were positioned there because of high-wind alerts, when boats with certain cargoes are prohibited from docking close to shore, said John Lipscomb, who captains Riverkeeper’s patrol boat, the R. Ian Fletcher.
Lipscomb said boats often anchor on the Hudson between Westchester and the 79th Street Boat Basin when they are waiting to unload cargo, but he was struck Sunday by the number of boats. Nearly all of them were gone by Monday afternoon when the wind had died down, he said.
“It’s like a taxi-stand. A mega taxi-stand where they wait before moving off,” Lipscomb said.
He said there was no environmental concern and that the boats kept their lights and engines on to be ready to move to shore whenever they were contacted. Lipscomb was glad people took the time to call Riverkeeper.
“It’s nice. People are looking out for the river. That’s heartening,” he said.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 1:33 pm by Ken Valenti.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
