- Hello, my name is Ana,
a science educator from Hudson River Park's River Project.
- Hi, I'm Amy.
I'm a high school student
at Hudson River Park's Influence Internship Program
where we conduct original, scientific research
on the Hudson River estuary.
- We're here at Hudson River Park's Pier 76,
and behind us is the Hudson River estuary.
It's a very bio-diverse ecosystem
where we conduct science research
to really understand how we as humans
have impacts on New York City's waterways.
One really important thing to think about are CSO events,
which introduce pollution into our waterways.
And combined sewer overflows, CSOs,
occur when storm water overwhelms our sewer system
and our water treatment plants,
which then allow untreated, or unclean water,
to enter our rivers and our ocean.
So you can imagine a lot of plastic debris
and other harmful pollutants will get
into our environment that way.
- So one way to gauge river health
is by conducting a marine debris survey where we collect
and categorize different types of plastic waste
that we find.
And doing this is very important
because by knowing the types
and quantities of plastic we collect,
we can then find a solution
to reduce this amount of plastic waste.
And as you can see around us,
the impact of human activity is very big.
- So we conduct this research
by using a data sheet like this
and we take a look at the types of plastic we see.
We categorize them and we do this
over a course of several months,
so that we can see change over time
of the types of plastic we see
and how often we're seeing them.
And that really tells us about how we as humans
are creating plastic pollution
and hopefully we can find a way to reduce it.
So one really great way to reduce CSO impacts
is by conserving water
and reducing your plastic use, of course.
And also being mindful of littering
and throwing away things properly and recycling.