For years, swimming in the Hudson was widely considered hazardous to your health, a trend that was reversed in no small part by the signing of the Clean Water Act of 1972, according to Dan Shapley, the senior director of advocacy, policy and planning program at Riverkeeper, an environmental nonprofit that monitors water quality and safe swimming spots. Both the state and the city health departments advise that bathers swim at regulated beaches, which are monitored for dangerous bacteria and other contaminants, with officials posting regular updates. New York City’s harbor is still “not considered a swimmable portion of the river,” according to the state environmental officials, but up the Hudson, open swims — ranging from polar dips to full-blown triathlons — abound. Still, Mr. Shapley added that this summer’s violent downpours have caused wide swaths of the river to be considered unsafe on occasion, as sewers have overflowed and other contaminants have run off into the Hudson, including animal waste, street garbage and bird guano. (Interestingly, one famed pollutant — PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, which made the Hudson the nation’s biggest Superfund site — are less of a concern for swimmers, as they usually collect in mud and on the bottom of the river.)

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Persons: Dan Shapley, Mr, Shapley, “ Organizations: Hudson Locations: Hudson, Albany, New York City, York, ”