New York, GE Pressured To Support Further Dredging Of PCBs In Hudson

摘要

New York and General Electric (GE) are facing pressure from stakeholders to conduct more extensive dredging of toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) hotspots in the Hudson as GE nears the end of its more than $1 billion, six-year sediment cleanup of the river, with dredging advocates arguing it could help accelerate the cleanup. GE over the past six years has during the warmer half of each year been dredging the Upper Hudson River to remove more than 2.6 million cubic yards of sediment contaminated with PCBs stemming from two electrical capacitor manufacturing plants that operated along the river for decades, according to the company. EPA required the Superfund cleanup, estimating that GE had discharged 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the river. The Hudson River dredging project is widely considered unprecedented in terms of the scope of contamination and technical challenges it involves, with GE claiming it is one of the biggest and most "logistically complex" cleanups in the country's history.