Our rivers, our sewers

Our friend Daniel Alvarez, the man who kayaked from Minnesota to Key West, Fla., last year, has given us a look at the nation’s biggest rivers that makes us want to turn away.

Alvarez, who is kayaking back to Minnesota by way of the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson River, provides a glimpse of the Hudson today that mirrors much of what he discovered on his trip down the Mississippi last year: We treat our great rivers as sewers.

And yet, he sees hope, which is what makes him unique.