NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A woman took a dive in the Hudson River, leading to shock and disbelief on social media, with users fearing the once-notorious waterway may still be rich with toxins.
Donna P, reportedly a 20-year-old food blogger in the city, posted a video to TikTok with the caption "swimming with lady liberty."
In the video taken last week, she can be seen jumping into the water a short distance from the Statue of Liberty.
"This feels like a dream," she captioned another video of the dive.
The video, which has over 3 million views on TikTok, led to a flood of comments on social media, with one user fearing she may have "chemical burns." Another user wrote, "This is a death sentence."
After the wave of comments, Donna followed up with another video in which she read from the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation website about the river's safety.
"Is the river clean? Swimmable? The answers are mixed," she says. "Water quality has improved since the 1960s. Many noxious discharges have ceased, but leftovers from past pollution haunt the Hudson, and new problems are becoming evident."
While "150 million gallons of raw sewage entered the river daily until 1986," the DEC says it is in fact "generally" safe to dive into the Hudson.
And Donna gave an update, saying she was OK: "I'm fine guys thank you for your concern, I will be attending my annual check up soon!"
This was her response after the video pic.twitter.com/QqChtXIoc9
— penny p (@_penny_proud_) August 16, 2020
