Henry Hudson, hunting for a shortcut to the Orient, accidentally discovered the Hudson River 400 years ago. This year’s quadricentennial celebrations of Hudson’s discovery have occasioned many reappraisals of the Hudson today, including an article published in Harper’s Magazine that, like Hudson himself, drifted off course.
Closely watched: Interested people have started coming down to the Fort Edward, NY, Yacht Basin to watch dredging crews work. GE has constructed a viewing area in cooperation with the Village of Fort Edward, New York State Canal Corporation and EPA.
GE operated two manufacturing businesses on the river for decades. These plants produced capacitors for power transmission that helped extend electrical power to homes and businesses after World War II. At the time, these capacitors were injected with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a fluid that prevented them from catching fire. And, consistent with industrial and municipal practice at the time, GE discharged waste including PCBs to the nearby Hudson River. When government permit programs were established, GE applied for and received permits for its discharges.
GE discontinued using PCBs in 1977. But PCBs remained in the ground at our plants and in the river, and for more than 30 years, we have pursued a systematic and comprehensive clean-up program, in conjunction with state and federal regulatory agencies.
It’s working. Today, the level of PCBs in the Hudson River water downstream of our facilities is more than 100 times lower than New York State’s safe drinking water standard. In its 2002 evaluation of the river, EPA found the Hudson safe not only for drinking, but for swimming, wading, and boating too.
PCB levels in striped bass in the Lower Hudson near New York City are well below the maximum 2 parts per million PCB level for safe human consumption set by the federal Food and Drug Administration. In the Upper Hudson, PCB levels in largemouth bass were on average 0.5 part per million in 2009. As a result of concerted efforts by industries and municipalities, the Upper and Lower Hudson today support thriving recreational fisheries and tourism. Meanwhile, we continue our work with state and federal regulatory agencies to cut off PCBs from the river. GE has spent more than $600 million on this work since 1990 and has met every regulatory commitment.
At our manufacturing facilities, GE removed thousands of tons of soil and sediment containing PCBs. Sophisticated underground systems collect contaminated water before it reaches the river. More than 20 acres of shoreline has been capped. In nearby communities, owners of private wells have been provided with clean drinking water supplies. GE has also cleaned up PCBs in local landfills and other locations where they were disposed of historically.
Last winter, GE completed one of the most innovative environmental projects ever undertaken: Two tunnels drilled into the rock 80 feet beneath the bottom of the Hudson. The tunnels, outfitted with PCB collection equipment, and our plant cleanups have reduced the amount of PCBs reaching the Hudson to less than an ounce a day. This work was approved and closely overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
In action: A dredge brings sediment to the surface of the river, preparing to lift it into the hopper barge, in the Fort Edward, NY, Yacht Basin in the Hudson River. This crew was working in the eastern channel of Rogers Island.
This summer, GE began the most ambitious environmental clean-up project of all — the first phase of a dredging project to remove PCBs from sediment in the river bottom. This is one of the largest and most complex environmental dredging projects ever undertaken anywhere. For seven months, GE’s crews worked 24 hours a day, six days a week to remove PCBs from the river. All told, more than 295,000 cubic yards of sediment were removed — far more than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expected. The project — the most intensively monitored project of its kind — was approved and overseen by EPA. All the data, some of which is posted on GE’s project web site at www.hudsondredging.com, will now be reviewed by EPA, GE and an independent technical peer review to determine if changes to the remainder of the project are warranted.
But Harper’s Magazine carries a story rife with inaccuracy. It suggests that large volumes of PCBs on land will migrate to the river in years to come and nullify the benefit of the current cleanups. This is wrong. There are comprehensive clean-up programs in place at every location where PCBs have been identified. The collaborative efforts of GE, the New York Stat Department of Environmental Conservation and EPA to identify and remediate PCB sources have been successful. The data collected weekly from the Hudson River show steady, substantial declines in PCB levels and don’t support Harper’s speculation.
We don’t buy Harper’s theory and our hunch is the regulatory agencies don’t either. Environmental cleanups, when designed and executed successfully, require diligence and commitment. They take years and cost millions of dollars. Sometimes the results take time.
* Read a point-by-point rebuttal and learn more about the entire project on hudsondredging.com.
* Harper’s is subscription-only, but the Associated Press gives an overview.
