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- Hello, my name is Ana,

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a science educator from Hudson
River Park's River Project.

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- Hi, I'm Amy.

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I'm a high school student

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at Hudson River Park's
Influence Internship Program

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where we conduct original,
scientific research

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on the Hudson River estuary.

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- We're here at Hudson
River Park's Pier 76,

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and behind us is the Hudson River estuary.

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It's a very bio-diverse ecosystem

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where we conduct science research

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to really understand how we as humans

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have impacts on New York City's waterways.

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One really important thing to
think about are CSO events,

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which introduce pollution
into our waterways.

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And combined sewer overflows, CSOs,

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occur when storm water
overwhelms our sewer system

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and our water treatment plants,

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which then allow untreated,
or unclean water,

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to enter our rivers and our ocean.

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So you can imagine a lot of plastic debris

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and other harmful pollutants will get

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into our environment that way.

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- So one way to gauge river health

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is by conducting a marine
debris survey where we collect

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and categorize different
types of plastic waste

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that we find.

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And doing this is very important

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because by knowing the types

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and quantities of plastic we collect,

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we can then find a solution

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to reduce this amount of plastic waste.

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And as you can see around us,

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the impact of human activity is very big.

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- So we conduct this research

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by using a data sheet like this

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and we take a look at the
types of plastic we see.

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We categorize them and we do this

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over a course of several months,

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so that we can see change over time

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of the types of plastic we see

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and how often we're seeing them.

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And that really tells us
about how we as humans

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are creating plastic pollution

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and hopefully we can
find a way to reduce it.

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So one really great way
to reduce CSO impacts

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is by conserving water

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and reducing your plastic use, of course.

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And also being mindful of littering

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and throwing away things
properly and recycling.