PCB News
EPA to Name PCB Dewatering Sites for Hudson River
Greenwire
March 12, 2003
WASTES & HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES; Vol. 10, No. 9
A day after pushing back until 2006 the $460 million plan
to dredge PCB-contaminated sediment from a 40-mile stretch of
the Hudson River, the U.S. EPA said yesterday it would name the
PCB dewatering sites in April or May.
General Electric factories released more than 1 million
pounds of PCBs into the river from 1946 until 1977 and the
contamination continues to harm fish. The EPA said on March 10
it would delay the cleanup by one year (Greenwire, March 11).
Addressing the Saratoga [N.Y.] County PCB Dredging
Committee, N.G. Kaul of the EPA's Hudson River Field office said
the agency would release the 20 to 30 proposed sites for two
dewatering facilities in the next couple months. Kaul added that
the EPA would be ready to issue its preliminary list of
performance standards for the cleanup within the next few weeks.
Kaul: "We are still moving ahead with this process" (Jim
Kinney, Saratoga Springs Saratogian, March 12).
Committee members told Kaul they were upset to hear the EPA
had known about the possible delay in the cleanup project for
the last several months. "You said you want to be upfront with
us," said committee member Christopher Sgambati. "We didn't know
anything until we read it in the paper" (Kenneth C. Crowe II,
Albany Times Union, March 12).
An Albany Times Union editorial: "If one delay on dredging
turns into another and another, it will be hard not to suspect
that the agency, and the White House, would rather avoid a
cleanup than pursue one."
Copyright 2003 E &E Publishing, LLC
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