Featured image: Egrets in the Meadowlands © Hackensack Riverkeeper
(NEW YORK-NEW JERSEY HARBOR ESTUARY, UNITED STATES) –
The New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary is located in the largest metropolitan region in the United States, where more than 14 million people work and raise their families and millions more come to visit from around the world every year. Throughout more than three centuries, the water in the estuary was degraded due to pollution and habitat destruction from activities like untreated sewage, industrial waste dumping, dredging, and development. The quality of the water hit its lowest point in the 1960s, a turning point in which New York State voters passed the Pure Waters Bond Act in 1965 and the federal Clean Water Act of 1972 was passed when several public and private NGOs and agencies began focusing on its recovery and pushed improved regulations and enforcement, coastal land use policies, public access, research, and education.…