Dec./Jan., 2000 issue

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 6, 2000 announced a plan to remove the poisons by dredging the most contaminated portion of the river -- a 40-mile stretch of the upper Hudson from Fort Edward downstream to the Federal Dam at Troy.

The recommendation was based on the EPA's 10-year study of the contamination of PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls.

The dredged material will be shipped by rail to existing licensed landfills outside of the Hudson River Valley for disposal. Under the federal Superfund law, the cost of the project, estimated at $460 million, would be the responsibility of General Electric.

The EPA's "recommended remedy" will now undergo a 60-day comment period. After that time, the recommendation can become final.

"The Hudson River is among America's great natural treasures," said U.S. EPA Administrator Carol Browner said in a Dec. 6 press release. "Today's proposal comes after 10 years of extensive scientific study. This scientific assessment is the basis for today's action -- one of the most aggressive environmental efforts ever proposed to restore a contaminated river and protect the public's health. The proposal targets the worst PCB hot spots for cleanup. It recognizes the need for stepped up containment of new PCB contamination from active sources. And it will ensure that cleanup efforts are sensitive to the needs of local communities. We will be taking full public comment on this proposal and listening to all involved before a final cleanup plan is adopted."

People who eat PCB-contaminated fish face an increased risk of cancer and other serious medical conditions including developmental, immune system, thyroid and reproductive problems. The chemicals pose a special risk to the health of children.

The PCB contamination of the Hudson dates back to a 30-year period ending in 1977 during which the General Electric Co. discharged as much as 1.3 million pounds of PCBs directly into the river from their facilities in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, New York.

General Electric strongly opposes the dredging plan, calling it "absurd."

"EPA's proposal today charts a course of environmental devastation for the Upper Hudson River for a generation or more," GE said in a Dec. 6 press release. "The proposal is absurd. EPA has willfully ignored its own finding in 1984 that a massive dredging program like the one proposed today would be "devastating to the river ecosystem." This proposal makes no sense because, as people who live near the river know, the Hudson is dramatically cleaner today than it was when EPA rejected dredging sixteen years ago."

The five-year dredging project would remove over 100,000 pounds of PCBs. The EPA study found that without targeted dredging, concentrations of PCBs are not expected to reach acceptable health and safety levels. The reassessment determined that the natural breakdown of PCBs cannot be relied on to significantly reduce risks to human health. PCBs now buried in the river's sediments are not remaining in place, the assessment found, and instead are moving downstream. Limited burial has not stopped the sediments from contaminating Hudson River fish, which still have PCBs far in excess of safe levels.

The plan also recognizes the need for stepped-up containment of PCBs still entering the river through fractures in the bedrock beneath the GE Hudson Falls plant.

EPA evaluated an alternative plan that called for capping contaminated areas to contain PCB sediments, but found it would be unreliable. EPA rejected an alternative for bank-to-bank dredging in favor of targeted dredging of the contaminated areas.

The scientific reassessment of the PCB-contamination problem began in 1990, six years after the Hudson River site was placed on Superfund's National Priorities List. It was aimed at understanding PCB contamination in the sediments of the upper Hudson River between the Federal Dam at Troy and Hudson Falls. All of the science was peer reviewed by independent scientific experts. EPA considered public comments, including submissions from GE, throughout its review over the past decade.