Hudson River at Risk: At The Nyack Center

Just how disastrous could transporting crude oil down the Hudson turn out to be?

It’s a question that’s examined in depth by Oceans 8 filmmaker Jon Bowermaster’s documentary, Hudson River at Risk: Bomb Trains on the Hudson. (*Spoiler* The answer: Very!)

Set to somber music, with a Northeastern grey hue, the film is manipulative, yet convincing in its thesis: these trains are all risk with little local reward. As Roger Downs, Conservation Director for the Sierra Club, explains in the film, “The worst case for this is that these bomb trains could come off the rails, they could explode in a Hudson River town and there could be dramatic loss of life.” Downs is one of several environmental advocators heard from in the film, each equally alarmed about the risks of the practice.

Bomb Trains is one of three films in Bowermaster’s Hudson River at Risk series. The other two are The Long Shadow of Indian Point, about the 2000 megawatt  nuclear power plant station on the east bank of the Hudson just south of Peekskill, and A Bridge over Troubled Waters, which delves into the environmental and economic costs of the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

The three short documentaries, plus a profile on local boat captain John Lipscomb, will be screened by Riverkeeper on Tuesday, December 8 at 7p at the Nyack Center (58 Depew Ave (at Broadway), Nyack, NY 10960), free of charge.

Bowermaster, who is an award-winning journalist, author, filmmaker, adventurer and six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council, will be at the screening, as part of a four-member panel, which will include State Senator David Carlucci, Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay, Rockland Water Coalition’s Laurie Seeman, and community and environmental activist Susan Van Dolsen.