Riverkeeper To Watch Hudson Dredging Closely
May 14, 2009
Riverkeeper Team
On Friday, May 15, the long delayed clean-up of the Hudson River PCBs begin. Now Riverkeeper will keep a watchful eye on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make sure the entire clean-up occurs and that it is thorough.
The first phase of the two-phase cleanup will last about six months and focus on the removal of approximately 265,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment – only 10% of the total amount of contaminated sediment originally slated for removal. A legal agreement between GE and EPA allows GE to determine if it will carry out Phase 2, currently designed to remove approximately 1,500,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment.
GE’s Hudson Falls and Fort Edwards plants dumped approximately 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River between 1947 and 1977.
