GE Gets OK from EPA to Shut Down Cleanup Plant on the Hudson River

The Swamp Stomp

Volume 15, Issue 46

The EPA on November 12 approved the shut down of a General Electric Co. PCB cleanup plant that has been treating polluted sediment dredged from the Hudson River for 6 years, according to WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The shut down of the plant is the one of the final steps before the EPA can declare GE’s dredging of the Hudson is completed, according to the Wall Street Journal. The plant was used to treat sediment that had been polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that GE had dumped into the river for more than 40 years.

The EPA stated that PCBs were banned in 1979, and that they “have been demonstrated to cause cancer, as well as a variety of other adverse health effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system and endocrine system.” They were widely used in manufacturing from 1929 until the ban.

According to WAMC, the dredging project took place over a 40-mile section of the Hudson River, north of Albany. The plant itself covered 110 acres.

WAMC stated that backfilling the dredged areas had already been completed. All dredged material is expected to be taken off site by the end of the year.

Critics of the EPA’s approval voiced concerns about future dredging prospects, according to the Wall Street Journal. They said that the plant could be used to treat sediment from other dredging operations along the Hudson. However, the EPA stated that “no such opportunity is imminent.”

Some of these critics were the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Wall Street Journal reported. Both organizations were against the plant shutting down because they believed more dredging was needed to meet the EPA’s goals for decontaminating the river.

WAMC reported that some of the infrastructure from the plant may remain in place. It is expected that some buildings, asphalt and concrete roads and surfaces, the wharf and the rail yard will remain. What will be left will depend on discussions between GE, the EPA and the surrounding property owners and municipalities. Soil sampling and the ability to decontaminate these structures will also play a large part in what stays.

The EPA said that it will be decades until PCB levels in the Hudson will be low enough for humans to eat fish from the river. Although the project is far from over, both GE and the EPA have called the dredging project a success. GE still has to conduct a $20 million study on how to restore 6,000 acres of land on the banks of the Hudson that were also contaminated by their PCBs.

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