The EPA Five-Year Review of Hudson River PCB Superfund site is underway. Riverkeeper continues to call for EPA to do more to ensure that it is an open, transparent, and scientifically reliable assessment. These concerns are shared by both federal and state agencies (the Attorney General’s Office and DEC).
On November 14, Basil Seggos, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) wrote to EPA demanding that over 1,400 additional sediment samples be collected in the river to enable accurate assessment of the effectiveness of the past 6 years of dredging. As DEC Commissioner Seggos concluded: “Unfortunately, EPA’s unwillingness to require GE to perform adequate sediment sampling undermines the five-year review process to determine the protectiveness of the remedy, and it makes it difficult to show that the remedy is meeting the goals set by the ROD [Record of Decision].”
We cannot allow EPA and GE off the hook. GE must be held responsible until the cleanup is complete—the only way the river can once again be a positive resource for our families, communities, and economy.
JOIN US on in Albany on Wednesday, November 30th, from 7-9pm to tell EPA that they must do more!
The Five-Year Review require must require EPA to do at least the following:
Additionally, EPA should include specific samples of the areas immediately adjacent to the dredged locations, as these areas are likely the most heavily contaminated, having the largest impact on recontamination
Additionally, because some goals of the cleanup are to be met within 5 years of the dredging, it is critical to get information before the five years is up.
The 40-mile cleanup was divided into three “river sections,” meaning that the planned sediment sampling plan will result in less than ten samples for every mile. Instead, EPA must require samples to be taken in specific local reaches of the river between dams, called “pools,” where the fish tend to stay.
We need your support to ensure that EPA will not let GE continue to endanger our lives, and the lives of future generations.
Tell EPA that you will not accept anything less than a determination of “not protective”!
Hudson River PCB Superfund Meeting in Albany
WHEN: November 30, 2016: 7:00PM-9:00PM
WHERE: Albany Marriott, 189 Wolf Road, Albany, NY 12205 (map)
More information here.
*For our full critique of EPA’s sediment sampling plan, please check out our letter to EPA.
Background:
The entire Hudson River, from the former GE plant in Hudson Falls to the Battery in New York City is a federal Superfund site because GE’s dumped of millions of pounds of PCBs into the river prior to the 1970s. In 2002, EPA and GE agreed that GE would dredge approximately 65% of the then-known PCBs north of the Federal Dam at Troy. From 2009 to 2015, GE dredged over 2.65 million cubic yards of sediment from the Hudson, but there is much more PCBs in the river than was initially thought.
EPA is required to review the Hudson River site every five years because the dredging in the Upper Hudson River left behind PCBs. In the “Five-Year Review,” EPA must analyze the data to ensure that the selected remedy for the river is “protective of human health and the environment.” If it is not, EPA must take steps to ensure the protectiveness of the remedy.
EPA’s next Five Year Review is due in April 2017.