Pollution Concerns After Dead Dolphin Found Floating In Hutchinson River
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Authorities made a very unusual find in Westchester County last week.
A dolphin was found dead, floating in the polluted waters of the Hutchinson River Friday. Pelham resident Brian Bober calls the discovery "very unusual."
"You can see from the river here that it gets really low," Bober tells CBS2's Brian Conybeare. "At high tide it's four, five, even six feet higher, so he may have swam upstream and when the tide went out he just got stuck."
Westchester County police officers pulled the dolphin out of the river just off of East Sandford Boulevard Friday afternoon.
Experts tell CBS2 the dolphin likely came up from the waters of the Long Island Sound, swam past City Island, and continued up into the Hutchinson River where it got into trouble nearly six miles upstream -- something virtually unheard of.
The mayor of Mount Vernon says the polluted waters may have played a role in the seafaring mammal's death.
"When that dolphin swam upriver it met its fate with the Hutch," Mayor Richard Thomas said.
The Environmental Protection Agency ordered the city to clean up the river 14 years ago, and stop raw sewage from leaking into the water from its aging sewer system, but so far the city council hasn't approved the mayor's plan to make repairs. Mount Vernon could face fines as soon as next week.
"Fines in the amount of millions of dollars a week and it could really bankrupt Mount Vernon if we don't clean this up," Mayor Thomas said.
Eleanor Rae runs a non-profit called the Hutchinson River Restoration Project. She's been trying to get the river cleaned up and raise awareness about the problem for more than a decade.
"If you don't see it and love it you're not going to take care of it," she said.
CBS2 reports the State Department of Environmental Conservation is testing the dolphin's body to determine its exact cause of death.
