The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its third five-year review of the Hudson River cleanup, but did not make a determination on its effectiveness. Environmental advocates contend existing data shows the work performed by General Electric to remove harmful PCBs did not go far enough.
The work to remove carcinogenic PCBs from the upper Hudson was completed by GE in 2015. The EPA’s original cleanup plan includes an extended period of natural recovery.
But in the draft third five-year review of the cleanup effort, the EPA says more data is needed.
Region 2 Administrator Lisa Garcia spoke with reporters on Wednesday.
“We conclude that PCB levels in water and fish are going down overall, but we need more annual fish data before we can determine if the cleanup is meeting the expectations of the original cleanup,” said Garcia.
Garcia said the EPA plans to issue an addendum in one to three years after more study.
Pete Lopez was EPA Region 2 Administrator when the agency issued its second five-year review in 2019. At the time, EPA issued a certificate of completion for the remedial action, but included language that the certificate would become null if additional testing showed the cleanup wasn’t working.
Lopez, who now works as Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy and Science at environmental organization Scenic Hudson, credits the non-profit with bringing thousands of new samples to EPA’s attention.
“My colleagues at EPA, the career staff had to acknowledge that the data was showing them, the science was showing them, through these combined more robust sampling, that the remedy was not working as they had envisioned. And so, they stepped away from asking me to sign and saying was protective, rewrote the five-year review. That's why it was delayed and step back to say that the remedy is not yet protected. They couldn't be moved at the time, to say that the remedy was not protective. We need more data. We need more fish sampling. But it made EPA blink.”
Prior to the release of the third five-year review, environmental advocates conducted their own review of publicly-available data. They say it shows the EPA is not meeting its targets.
Lopez says the EPA’s plan to delay making a determination is unnecessary.
“And I would argue, I would say, counter to the mission of erring on the side of the public and being protective of public health in the environment, we should be erring on the side of the public and the and the community communities who are at risk here,” said Lopez.
Drew Gamils is senior attorney at Riverkeeper, a non-profit that with Scenic Hudson and other organizations is part of the Friends of a Clean Hudson Coalition. Gamils also disagrees with the EPA’s timeline.
“I think they're just delaying to give them time to think about next steps, which is frustrating, because the next steps are very clear. You need a ‘not protective’ determination. We need to improve sampling, and we need to take action to remove PCBs from the river, and I think maybe they're also trying to work with GE, because obviously GE is not going to be very happy if EPA does in that protective determination, because that will require work to be done,” said Gamils.
EPA is taking public comments on the draft review until October 8th. A public meeting is scheduled for August 21st. Gamils says she will be encouraging Hudson Valley residents to inform themselves.
“I will be working very hard to make sure that the public knows what's going on, that the public is aware of what the conclusions are in this five-year review, and that the public has a path that they can use to comment on the draft five-year review,” said Gamils.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says it will “thoroughly review” the EPA’s report and is “committed to working with the EPA to fully assess and develop further actions to hold GE accountable.”
GE released a statement Wednesday that says:
“The Hudson River dredging project removed the vast majority of PCBs from the Upper Hudson, led to broad declines in PCB levels, and is on track to deliver further improvements.”
