The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric provided stakeholders updates on the ongoing Hudson River Superfund cleanup project and a recap of the concluded 2013 dredging season on Thursday.
At a meeting of the Hudson River PCB Superfund site’s Community Advisory Group, General Electric presented to stakeholders an update on the massive habitat restoration and dredging project, saying that between April 29th and November 6th, 612,000 cubic yards of sediment containing PCBs were removed from the river bottom.
Outlawed in the 1970s, PCBs, short for polychlorinated biphenyls, are believed-to-be cancer-causing chemicals discharged into the Hudson from General Electric’s Fort Edward and Hudson Falls capacitor manufacturing facilities between 1947 and 1977.
At the meeting, it was announced that in 2013, GE received 54 complaints, more than half related to noise. GE announced two one-hour noise exceedances.
David Mathis, a CAG member representing recreational boater, said people he encounters on the river rarely shared negative comments.
“From my observation it’s a very well choreographed, thousand-ton ballet,” said Mathis. “The project out there is very well managed, its minimal restrictions, and it’s very, very rarely that somebody will have any complaints at all about the project, in fact it’s almost all complimentary.”
GE said about 6 percent of the project areas have been capped to date, so far below the 11 percent limit set by the EPA. Through PCB monitoring at the site, air and water quality measurements under the Safe Drinking Water Act were also within the set limits. At the farthest downstream monitoring location in Waterford, the 500 parts per trillion standard was not exceeded.
Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, said many stakeholders were worried about the potential for suspended PCBs to drift further downriver from the Superfund Site due to the dredging process.
“We’re concerned that the dredging doesn’t just stir things up and end up downstream in an area that’s not going to be remediated, and in fat that turns out to be the case that it’s being contained, it’s very minimal, and there’s no reason to worry about the dredging having a long-term negative impact.”
At the meeting, it was estimated that the remaining work in the project will be completed in three years.
A presentation was also given by staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the ongoing Hudson River Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Kathryn Jahn is the case manager for the NRDA from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“We are in the process of conducting injury studies for mink and birds, and there are study plans for those on our website, and we are continuing to investigate other injuries to natural resources to determine restorations so that the public is fully compensated for their losses.”
Julie Stokes, representing the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, said that she was concerned with the ability of small Hudson River communities without the necessary staff to submit detailed restoration project proposals.
“Somehow we need to get some assistance so as the Natural Resource [Damage] Assessment goes forward, that the communities in the upper Hudson, where the real impact has been, get some assistance in figuring out how to do it.”
Jahn said she invites the public to visit the Hudson River NRDA on the web or call, where anyone can submit restoration project ideas.
Speaking again for recreational boaters, David Mathis said he’d like to see more done to promote the Hudson River and New York State canal system as a destination, not just a transportation facility.
“When’s the last time you heard a kid say, ‘Gee, Dad, can we go to the Thruway for vacation this year?’ You don’t! It’s a transportation facility, we have to change that. Because there’s a lot of money out there, and we’re missing it.”
Over the next few months, the EPA will be reviewing GE’s plans for the 2014 dredging season. Dredging is scheduled to begin next year in logistically challenging areas, including hotspots located in shallow bays and near islands, as well a landlocked section of the river between the Thompson Island and Fort Miller dams.
For more information:
http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/restorationplans/hudsonriver/
http://www.epa.gov/hudson/
Correction: The Department of Interior is seeking input on restoration projects, not cleanup projects as previously mentioned.
