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DiNapoli: GE to examine risks from new PCB hotspots
ALBANY — General Electric Corp. has agreed to prepare an analysis of the actions required to remove recently discovered polychlorinated biphenyl contamination (PCB) contaminated sediments from the Hudson River and report its findings to shareholders, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced today. The analysis will be completed by the end of 2013. In response to the agreement, DiNapoli withdrew a shareholder resolution calling on the company to do such an evaluation.
“GE deserves praise for getting in front of this problem and exploring the benefits of additional dredging,” DiNapoli said. “The company has agreed to analyze its potential exposure in the event that the EPA determines that PCBs remaining in the river pose an unacceptable risk to public health or the environment. It is much better to act sooner rather than later.”
The hotspots were noted in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released last June on GE’s remediation efforts. The recently discovered contamination was not subject to remediation under the original Superfund cleanup, DiNapoli's office said. The report said additional dredging would achieve EPA's goals more quickly and reduce the time the environment would be exposed to PCB concentrations above the cleanup goal.
Last June, environmental groups raised concerns about 136 acres of river bottom between the Thompson Island Dam and the Northumberland Dam on the upper Hudson that were considered significantly contaminated by PCBs but are not within the footprint of the federally approved dredge project.
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