POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County will file a friend of the court brief with the US District Court for the Northern District of New York in support of the state’s lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The state attorney general and governor have filed their suit maintaining the EPA violated federal law when, in April, despite indication that concentrations of carcinogenic PCBs remain dangerously high in the Hudson River, it issued a certificate of completion to General Electric indicating that the company’s clean-up efforts were complete and the EPA agrees not to sue GE in the future.
County Executive Marcus Molinaro will stress in the county brief the economic and environmental impacts of the river on county residents, many of whom rely on the river for drinking water, fishing, recreation, tourism and commerce, and he will urge the court vacate the certificate of completion until the long-term ecological health of the river is verifiably achieved.
“The EPA’s grossly premature certificate of completion is a dangerous and critical blow to these ongoing efforts to restore the Hudson River.
