EPA Will Dredge PCBs from Hudson River
With GE Having to Pay the $460 Million Bill

AP 1aug01

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed a Clinton administration proposal to dredge PCBs from the Hudson River but will implement the plan in stages, a New York congressman said Tuesday.

The sweeping $460 million plan, one of the largest dredging operations ever, is opposed by General Electric Co., which would have to foot most of the bill for the cleanup.

GE legally discharged 1.3 million pounds of PCBs -- whose chemical name is polychlorinated biphenyls -- in the river over a 40-year period from plants in Fort Edward, N.Y., and Hudson Falls, N.Y.

After PCBs were linked to cancer in laboratory animals and banned in 1977, GE stopped the dumping.

The company, which has argued that the river is cleaning itself naturally and widespread dredging would cause huge disruption with little benefit, spent millions of dollars on a public relations blitz and top-notch lobbyists to defeat the plan. The company's outspoken chief executive, John F. Welch, personally lobbied Environmental Administrator Christie Whitman.

Rep. John Sweeney (R., N.Y.) was informed late Tuesday by EPA officials that Ms. Whitman was supporting the plan, said his spokesman, Kevin Madden.

But Ms. Whitman modified the Clinton administration plan so that it would be phased in with stops along the way to test to see how effective the dredging was in removing PCBs from the river, Mr. Madden said.

"The EPA and Administrator Whitman have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear on the people of the Upper Hudson River region," Mr. Sweeney, an opponent of the dredging, said late Tuesday. The dredging would take place in Mr. Sweeney's district, where residents fear PCB waste will be stored.

Dredging is expected to begin near Thompson Island, where the worst concentration of PCBs is located.

EPA spokesman Chris Paulitz had no comment Tuesday night. The plan will not be made public officially until late September after officials in New York State have had a chance to review it. New York Gov. George Pataki, who only endorsed the EPA plan just days ago, also had no comment Tuesday through a spokesman.

Ms. Whitman has faced a barrage of criticism over early environmental decisions by the Bush administration on arsenic in drinking water and global warming, and environmentalists have been watching closely to see how she would deal with the PCB cleanup in the Hudson.

The EPA in December announced a $460 million proposal to dredge 2.65 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a 40-mile stretch of the river north of Albany. It could take years before dredging of the Hudson begins.