Table Of ContentEdited by
RALPH W. RICHARDSON, JR.
GILBERT TAUBER
Natural and Environmental Sciences Division
The Rockefeller Foundation
New York, New York
THE
HUDSON RIVER
BASIN
Environmental Problems and Institutional Response
VOLUME 1
1979
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
The Hudson River Basin.
Includes index.
1. Regional planning—New York metropolitan
area. 2. Regional planning—Hudson River Valley.
3. Environmental policy—New York metropolitan
area. 4. Environmental policy—Hudson River
Valley. I. Richardson, Ralph W. II. Tauber,
Gilbert.
HT394.N5H83 309.2'5'097473 78-19999
ISBN 0-12-588401-X
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
79 80 81 82 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Foreword
The Hudson Basin displays a wide array of environmental problems that
are sufficiently serious or complex to have become public issues. That so
many of these problems have escalated to the level of issues is not so much
an indication of the poor state of the environment itself as it is a reflection of
the inadequacy of existing institutions.
Most of the environmental problems in the Hudson Basin today are the
result, direct or indirect, of the tremendous population and economic
growth in the 25 years following World War II. The physical development
required to accommodate that growth was often poorly planned and placed
tremendous stress on environmental resources. During the same 25-year
period, there also were major movements in population and shifts in indus-
trial location. These eroded the fiscal base of the region's older cities and
placed a great strain on the governmental and social institutions of both the
central cities and the developing suburban areas. In the 1970s there has
been increasing recognition of the environmental problems generated in the
two previous decades. But because the region's economy has also slackened
in this decade, the money needed to repair existing environmental damage
is not currently available. Therefore, present efforts must focus on preventing
further damage.
Natural systems in the Hudson Basin have been heavily impacted by man,
not only since World War II but also over several generations. When, how-
ever, one considers the region's huge concentrations of population and
economic activity, its natural systems are still quite productive. Neverthe-
less, we have no grounds for complacency. Relatively little is known about
the underlying dynamics, and therefore the carrying capacity, of the basin's
ix
X Foreword
natural systems, including their ability to assimilate pollutants and to recover
from other types of stress caused by human activity.
The Project's ten task groups presented numerous case studies of en-
vironmental controversies or "problem situations" in the Hudson Basin.
Most of these problem situations illustrate one or more of the following:
• Multiple effects of siting large-scale energy-producing facilities
• The lack of land use control above the local level
• The lack of local capacity to control the effects of large-scale initia-
tives that induce development or otherwise influence land use
• Inadequate legislation leading to court battles in which diffuse en-
vironmental interests are pitted against highly focused economic
interests
• The "taking issue," i.e., the lack of clarity and consensus on how far
the public can assert an interest in private land before it becomes a
"taking" which must be compensated
• The neglect of existing rail freight facilities while public investment
encourages increased reliance on truck transportation
• The inadequacy of scientific and institutional capacity to allocate
water resources among competing uses in the Hudson Basin
• The difficulty of controlling pressures that are accelerating the with-
drawal of land from agricultural use
• The distorting effects of the property-tax system on land use
• The inadequacy of existing procedures for assessing the costs and
benefits of environmental decisions
The environment management needs of the Hudson Basin are manifold.
Based on the work of the Project's task groups, the following appear to need
the most attention:
• The rehabilitation of the inner-city environment and the control of
urban sprawl
• The reduction of health hazards in the work and home environments
• The improvement of institutional capacity for regional water man-
agement
• The filling of the gaps in land use planning and regulation
• The moderation of solid-waste generation and the improvement of
disposal techniques
• The protection of ecologically significant land and water resources
• The integrated planning of transportation modes and land use
• The moderation of energy demand and the augmentation of supply
• The improvement of the management of interstate air quality
Foreword xi
• The optimization of public and private investment policies affecting
the environment
States and many of their constituent units of local government have as-
signed most of their functions to single-purpose agencies and departments.
The most fundamental weakness of the single-purpose unit is the limited
scope of its mandate, mission, authority, expertise, and funding, which re-
sults in the inability to manage the consequence of its actions. The need to
strengthen environmental management institutions has been identified by
the Hudson Basin Project as the most important underlying problem in the
study area. The measures needed to correct present deficiencies can be
summed up as follows: Improve information management. Broaden assess-
ment processes. Increase and strengthen arenas for conflict resolution. Im-
prove the substance and explicitness of policy. Strengthen institutional
capacity to formulate and execute policy.
The above steps, if pursued over time by all affected interests, would
strengthen the public's perception and its will to act on the primary need to
improve institutional capacity for environmental decision-making. As a next
step, it is proposed that a new organization be created to involve environ-
mental research producers, funders, and users in the pursuit of the recom-
mendations outlined in Volumes Ί and 2. The organization's primary task
would be to develop and execute projects and programs that lead to more
effective decisions about specific environmental problems in the basin.
Concurrent tasks would include basic research, the development of a re-
gional research agenda, and information transfer.
Chapter 1, originally published as the Project's final report, is the product
of a collaborative effort of a staff and consultant team consisting of Leonard
B. Dworsky, Chadborne Gilpatric, Caroline F. Raymond, Gilbert Tauber,
Anthony Wolff, and the undersigned. A complete list of Project participants
and a brief history of the Project are included in the appendixes to Volume 2.
Although the analysis, conclusions, and recommendations presented here
represent the sense of what can be fairly drawn from the Project's work, it
does not necessarily reflect a consensus of all participants. Therefore, re-
sponsibility for the final form, substance, and emphasis of this report must
rest with the undersigned.
For the contributions and assistance so unstintingly tendered by all—The
Rockefeller Foundation, the Advisory Panel, task group members, consul-
tants, and Project staff—deepest appreciation is extended.
C. David Loeks
Preface
These two volumes are drawn from the work of the Hudson Basin Project,
a three-year study of environmental problems and issues and of the institu-
tions that are attempting to manage them. The Project, initiated in 1973, was
funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and carried out by Mid-Hudson Pat-
tern, Inc., a nonprofit regional planning organization, under the direction of
C. David Loeks.
Some of the environmental issues analyzed in the Project have been
resolved; others are still being debated. However, the Project's contribution
to environmental policy analysis goes beyond specific issues or the bound-
aries of a specific region.
The Project's innovative approach begins with the delineation of its study
area, which comprises the New York metropolitan region plus that portion
of its hinterland within the Hudson River watershed. It is an area large
enough to reveal the interrelationships of environmental problems, yet small
enough to be comprehended in concrete terms. Within this area, the Project
was able to examine the very broad range of issues resulting from long-term
interaction between human settlement and its surrounding natural resource
base.
Another distinctive feature of the Project was the division of "the envi-
ronment" into ten "policy sectors." An interdisciplinary task group was
asked to view the basin's environment from the standpoint of a given policy
sector and to examine the interactions between its sector and each of the
other nine. At the outset, the participants were asked to suspend temporarily
their preconceptions about what constitutes "the environment." As the
reader will soon note, the definition that emerged was very broad indeed.
XIII
xiv Preface
Approximately 125 people contributed to the Hudson Basin Project. They
produced over 4000 pages of memoranda, working documents, and reports.
The Project's final report and the ten task group reports were published in
"working paper" format by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1976 and 1977.
Early in 1978, Academic Press proposed that the report series be edited for
publication as a book, thereby making the material available to a larger
audience and in a more permanent form. Chapter 1 of the present work is a
summation of the entire Project as presented in the final report. Chapters 2
through 11 are drawn from the work of the individual task groups concerned
with the ten policy sectors.
In editing the earlier report series for publication in these two volumes, it
was necessary to condense some of the reports and to omit several detailed
background papers prepared by individual task group members.
We hope we have succeeded in retaining essentially all of the material of
long-term interest to students of environmental management and policy
analysis, and hope also that we have done justice to the many people who
gave so generously of their time and talents. If any errors of commission or
omission have been made in editing the present volumes, the responsibility
lies with the undersigned, rather than with the task group members or with
the Project's director.
Ralph W. Richardson, Jr.
Gilbert Tauber
Contents of Volume 2
Chapter 7 Water Resources
Chapter 8 Air Resources
Chapter 9 Biological Communities
Chapter 10 Human Health
Chapter 11 Leisure Time and Recreation
Appendix A Project History and Process
Appendix B Hudson Basin Project Participants
Appendix C Research Needs
Appendix D United States Standard Metropolitan
Statistical Areas (SMSAs) with Populations
over One Million in 1970
Appendix E Population and Employment Data, Hudson
Basin Subregions
Appendix F Extract from the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-
St. Paul) Metropolitan Development Guide
Appendix G Response of Suburban Action Institute
References
Index
XV
Chapter 1
ANATOMY OF AN ENVIRONMENT
1.1 Introduction
Environment, in its broadest sense, denotes the totality of things, forces, or
conditions that act upon or influence an organism or a group of organisms.
However, when we speak of an environment, we are necessarily referring to
the array of influences on a particular organism or group of organisms. The
operative phrase in our definition is "act upon or influence." We are con-
cerned with the environment not just because it is there, but because it acts
upon and influences the people of a region.
To a greater extent than most other species, man lives in an environment
of his own making. Some of the changes that man makes in his environment
are deliberate; others are unintended (but predictable) consequences of pur-
poseful action. Still other changes are inadvertent—i.e., neither intended nor
predictable—but even these are nearly always the consequences of some
purposeful action.
This comment brings us to the concept of management, which can be
defined as the activity—more or less skillful—of controlling or handling
something. As a species, man is unique in the degree to which he is able to
manage his environment. Most environmental management is collective in
the sense that it is governed by institutions. In our society we tend to think of
institutions in terms of formal organizations, but the term can refer to any
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