Upcoming “Swim for the River” program

Most of us will never know what it’s like to swim the Hudson River for 315 miles from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and out into the Atlantic Ocean . But a Vermont man name Christopher Swain did it in 2004. On Tuesday, November 7 at 12:30 p.m., Dutchess Community College will preview Swim for the River - a 56-minute documentary of his journey - in advance of the film’s national release on public television. The program also includes a representative from Riverkeeper, an advocacy group that monitors the Hudson River ecosystem and challenges polluters, using both legal and grass roots campaigns.
This free event, which is sponsored by DCC’s biology club BIOS and the PBS station WMHT in Troy, takes place in the Louis Greenspan North Cafeteria, Drumlin Hall, at the main campus in Poughkeepsie. For information, contact BIOS Advisor Wendy Bohlinger at (845) 431-8089.
Swain takes a very personal approach to environmental and waterway activism. He has completed clean water swims in nine U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. These include a 210-mile swim of the lower Connecticut River, a 1,243-mile swim of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, a 125-mile swim the length of Lake Champlain, and an 80-mile swim on the Charles River. On the Hudson, Swain followed the river from its wilderness beginnings 4,293 feet up Mt. Marcy to its end in one of the nation’s densest population centers. Along the way, he braved whitewater, sewage, snapping turtles, hydroelectric dams, homeland security patrols, factory outfalls, PCB contamination, and well-meaning rescue attempts.
The documentary provides an historical perspective to Swain’s feat. The 19th century destruction and redemption of the Adirondacks compliments the modern-day story of citizens fighting to block the building of a huge trash plant that would burn one quarter of New York City’s garbage, and Riverkeeper’s battles with the ExxonMobil Corporation to force it to clean up the largest oil spill in the United States .
But to Swain, the story isn’t about how polluted the river has been, but how clean it has become. “The Hudson [River] whose filth galvanized environmentalists is hardly in evidence today,” said Swain. “We used to have to convince folks that the Hudson River was in trouble, and that cities and corporations were on track to slaughter the waterway. Now, we need to convince folks that we have a chance to turn the Hudson River back into a diamond.”
Hudson River water quality has improved measurably since the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972, said Swain, “But public perceptions of the waterway have failed to keep pace. I suggest it is time to hope for more than a somewhat dirty river. That it is time to dream of the kind of river we want our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to inherit. To me, this looks like a Hudson River that is drinkable without treatment all the way down to Troy, and swim-able all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, every single day of the year.”
The documentary Swim for the River was created by independent filmmaker Tom Weidlinger, who has been writing, directing, and producing documentary films for 30 years. Seventeen of his films have received national broadcasts on public television. Many have won prestigious festival and industry awards and are in education distribution.
Pictured Above: Chris Swain swimming in the Hudson River.