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Washington, D.C. - Anticipating a final agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and General Electric (GE) regarding the details of dredging toxic PCBs from the Hudson River, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) last week summoned top EPA officials to his Washington, DC office to discuss the details of the project. Hinchey implored the officials to resist compromise with GE that would lead to an insufficient cleanup and also demanded that the agency require GE to cover the entire cost of the cleanup.
"I felt that it was very important for me to meet face-to-face with EPA officials who will be the ones working out a final agreement with GE on how this dredging project will work," Hinchey said. "When it comes to cleaning the Hudson River and ensuring a future that is safe for people to enjoy as well as for all of the aquatic life in the river, every detail matters. I recognize that as a company GE is looking to conduct this dredging in the most cost-effective way possible, rather than in the most environmentally and ecologically sound way possible. In my view, GE must pay for the entire dredging project and the EPA must require the company to go along with a dredging plan that will eliminate as many PCBs as possible, using state of the art technology, including the use of hydraulic dredges rather than clam shell dredges, where feasible."
As a result of 30 years of PCB discharges from two General Electric (GE) plants, the upper Hudson River is one of the nation's largest Superfund sites. PCB contamination in the Hudson has taken a great toll on the river's economic, recreational, and environmental resources. Fish in a 200-mile stretch of the river are contaminated at unsafe levels, resulting in a virtual end to the river's commercial fishery industry, which was valued at more than $40 million annually in 1976. In addition, PCBs from the upper Hudson are responsible for about half of the sediment PCB contamination in New York Harbor, as contaminated sediment continues to migrate downriver each year from the upper Hudson River. This contamination greatly increases the cost of dredging the harbor, which is critical to the economic vitality of the New York metropolitan region.
The February 2002 Record of Decision (ROD) calls for targeted environmental dredging and removal of approximately 2.65 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a 40-mile stretch of the Upper Hudson. In the ROD, EPA selected a plan that addresses the risks to people and the environment associated with PCBs in the sediments of the Upper Hudson River. The actions in the Upper Hudson will lower the risks to people, fish, and wildlife in the Lower Hudson.
"This process has dragged on for far too long, which is why it is time to begin the dredging in earnest," Hinchey said. "Not only will our health benefit from a cleaner Hudson River, but our economy will benefit as well with new opportunities for development and travel along the river. The sooner the dredging begins and the more comprehensive that dredging is, the sooner all New Yorkers will be able to enjoy the Hudson River the way it was meant to be enjoyed."
PCBs pose a threat to public health. The chemicals have long been regulated as human carcinogens, and scientific evidence about PCBs' impact on disease resistance, reproduction, and cognitive development continues to grow. Studies of PCBs in the Great Lakes region have shown troubling effects on the birth-weights, cognitive abilities, and emotional stability of children exposed in utero. It is clear from a number of local studies that despite health warnings regarding fish consumption, residents of the Hudson Valley, particularly those who live in urban areas along the River, continue to eat the fish they catch, exposing these residents and their families to unacceptable levels of PCB contamination and related health risks. Each year that goes by without dredging the PCBs, hundreds of pounds of the toxic material flow downstream, endangering the health of residents who live further south along the Hudson River.
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