Historic Riverkeeper Cleanup Case Comes Full Circle

Photo courtesy of the Hastings Historical Society
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Former site of worst concentration of PCBs on the Hudson to be remediated

Photo courtesy of the Hastings Historical Society

New York State DEC announced it has reached an agreement with the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), formerly Anaconda Wire & Cable, on a consent order to begin cleaning up contaminated sediment at the site and in the Hudson River.

The agreement is the culmination of a long battle that began shortly after Riverkeeper was founded as the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association (HRFA). In 1969, HRFA started investigating Anaconda Wire and Copper Company for a history of dumping oil and solvents into the river and collected a $200,000 penalty from the company in 1973.

In 2003, Riverkeeper, ARCO and the Village of Hastings signed a settlement agreement, resolving a lawsuit filed by Riverkeeper in 1994 against ARCO. The agreement required the company to remediate some of the shoreline and the site itself, but not offshore contamination in the Hudson. Since then, Riverkeeper, the Village of Hastings and Scenic Hudson have been working with BP/ARCO to broaden the cleanup plan to include the portion of the Hudson contaminated with PCBs from the site.

With the signing of this consent order, the final stage of cleanup planning for this historic riverfront site is at last underway. If all goes well, the site will be remediated in six years, and the Village of Hastings can reclaim its waterfront for the future.