Gillibrand, Tonko seek more cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson

[TexasTowelie]

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and six Congress members from New York are pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare more work is needed on the $1.7 billion PCB cleanup of the Hudson River.

In a letter Wednesday to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Gillibrand and the other lawmakers said the seven-year cleanup, which concluded in the summer of 2015, failed to reach the goals of a 2002 agreement between EPA and General Electric Co.

GE dredged about 40 miles of river bottom between Fort Edward in Washington County and Troy in Rensselaer County to remove toxic PCBs. The company had legally dumped PCBs in the river from its former capacitor plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls until that became illegal in the late 1970s.

The lawmakers’ letter criticized a draft EPA report issued this summer that found the cleanup will reach its goals, although it will take five decades or more, and depends in part on a natural degradation of remaining PCBs in the river.

Read more: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/278056/gillibrand-tonko-seek-more-cleanup-of-pcbs-in-the-hudson/