MID-HUDSON – State lawmakers and Friends of a Clean Hudson coalition are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce a full remediation of PCBs in the Hudson River.
The coalition includes Assemblywoman MaryJane Shimsky (D, Tarrytown) and Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Pete Harckham (D, Mount Kisco).
“Our local communities are eager to make use of their Hudson River shorelines, but the scale of PCB contamination and the costs of remediation are simply too great for them to bear,” said Shimsky. “The EPA must live up to its promise and ensure that this 200-mile-long Superfund site is restored to safety for our residents, wildlife and environment.”
In April the EPA will release a five-year review of the Upper Hudson River dredging by General Electric, which has failed to achieve EPA goals for reducing PCB levels in the river sediment.
GE released an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the river from 1947 to 1977 near Fort Edwards and Hudson Falls.
Dangerous levels have been found as far south as New York harbor, and the state has advisories in effect against eating fish caught in the Hudson River, due mainly to PCB pollution.
Forty-three state lawmakers have written to EPA Administrator Michael Regan denouncing the “persistent environmental injustice through toxic PCB pollution.”
