Interest in eastern oyster restoration in the Hudson/Raritan estuary (HRE) has been building in conjunction with water quality improvements near New York City. Restoration is motivated by the ecosystem services typically provided by a large oyster population. Multiple projects have tested the performance of post-settlement oysters in different parts of the HRE, or attempted to assess available habitat. Only one study tested whether oyster larvae can survive to settlement (to produce juvenile oyster “spat”), and that effort in Jamaica Bay found larvae but no local settlement. Larvae represent the critical dispersal stage of eastern oysters, but it also is the most vulnerable life cycle stage. Restoring a sustainable population requires that we understand environmental constraints on larval survivorship. In this project we continued systematic monitoring of newly settled oyster spat south of the only known wild population in the Hudson River. Oyster settlement in 2019 decreased to the south in a pattern similar to 2018. A net southward pattern of larval dispersal is expected, so our second objective was to experimentally test whether waste water treatment plant effluent increases oyster larval developmental abnormalities or mortality. No treatment effect was observed, but logistical challenges prevented sufficient testing to support a conclusion.