A Storm in the Port: Keeping the Port of New York and New Jersey Open

The pith of this well-intentioned but near-impenetrable report on a crisis in one of the country's busiest ports is that there's much sludge and silt to dredge to keep shipping channels clear—but finding places to dump it is a continuing problem. A marine biologist and environmental scientist, Lechich draws from daily logs he kept through the '90s while he was with the Environmental Protection Agency in his awkward first book, which is heavy on scientific jargon and the minutiae of argumentative meetings. It was a time when the agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and an ad hoc environmentalist group feuded over the sludge mucking up shipping lanes. At one point, when a federal appeals court halted out-at-sea dumping because of fears of dioxin contaminants, dredged material was shipped by barge to Texas and then by rail to Utah; lanes leading to Liberty Island (and the Statue of Liberty) became almost too shallow for tourist ferries. A compromise brokered in part by Vice President Al Gore's office finally allowed resumption of ocean dumping. But silt never sleeps, notes Lechich: higher dredging costs now confront small marina operators in the New York/New Jersey area, and ever-larger container ships are again finding the ports difficult to navigate. 20 b&w illus. (Apr. 28)