Toxics: A Remnant of Our Industrial Legacy

By Jennifer Adkins, Executive Director, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

The Delaware River’s industrial legacy has its benefits and costs. The benefits include economic prosperity that has fueled art, architecture, world-renowned social and technical advances, and nationally-significant history. The physical remnants of this past have become part of our region’s identity, from coal mines in Schuylkill County and shipyards in Philadelphia and Wilmington to historic downtowns and small towns throughout the region. Unfortunately, the costs include some toxic remnants of this legacy that are just as long lasting. 

Toxic chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and heavy metals like mercury pose threats to people as well as the environment, and these are among our top concerns for the health and future of the Delaware estuary. Where do these contaminants come from, and how can we minimize their future impacts? That is the focus of this issue of Estuary News. 

Some of the worst offenders, like PCBs, come from uses and even substances long abandoned, but will persist in our rivers for years to come.

Today, scientists at The Academy of natural Sciences in Philadelphia are earning about these contaminants in part by studying sediments from the Delaware River. read more