Maloney (podium): “… they put a lot of bad things in this river”
POUGHKEEPSIE – The remediation work in the Hudson River to rid it of cancer-causing PCBs is not finished, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said Wednesday.
Speaking at a news conference at the Upper Landing Park on the banks of the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, Maloney said progress has been made, but they do not want the work to end prematurely.
“GE may bring good things to life, but they put a lot of bad things in this river,” he said, referring to GE’s decades-long practice of dumping toxic PCBs into the Hudson River north of the Troy dam.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to review the progress that General Electric has made in reducing PCB contamination in the Hudson.
Maloney, along with Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper assert that the EPA will be using modeling to determine the progress rather than actual scientific data which, according to the state shows that PCBs are still traveling south, over the dam, and polluting the Hudson in areas as far south as Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Beacon. Poughkeepsie draws its water from the Hudson while Newburgh and Beacon get their water from reservoirs.
State Assemblyman Frank Skartados (D, Milton) said for more than 40 years, GE has “polluted and poisoned the Hudson River” and he plans to continue to work with Governor Cuomo and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to urge the EPA to force General Electric to continue dredging for at least two more seasons.
Joining them at the conference was Poughkeepsie Mayor Robert Rolison who declared the Hudson to be an environmental engine for the region and also encouraged the EPA to use the scientific data available to them. “We have to make sure it’s done right. If we have two more seasons of dredging or five more seasons, so be it,” said the mayor who was also there representing Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro.
Scenic Hudson, who Maloney credits with bringing the PCB contamination to light, has been fighting for a clean river for 40 years, according to its President Ned Sullivan. He said the most recent turning point of getting the Hudson River cleaned up is when Maloney demanded that the EPA hold GE accountable for what is still the largest Superfund site in the country and continue the dredging. The environmental leader said the river, the largest Superfund site in the country because of the number of PCB hotspots, could be eradicated with a minimum of two more seasons of dredging.
