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EPA To Continue Studying Upper Hudson River

Dredging equipment positioned along the Hudson River at Ft. Edward.
WAMC Photo by Dave Lucas
Dredging equipment positioned along the Hudson River at Ft. Edward.

The Environmental Protection Agency says it will evaluate about 1,800 sediment samples taken in 2017 by New York state officials from the Upper Hudson River. EPA is also advancing a study of the floodplain in the Upper Hudson where work began in 2014 when General Electric agreed to conduct a remedial investigation and study of PCB contamination. 

The study covers a 43-mile stretch of the floodplain from Hudson Falls to Troy. 

“While EPA, its partners, and the public continue to give serious attention to post-dredging recovery of the Upper Hudson, it’s imperative that we also expand the scope of the Agency’s efforts to ensure the Hudson River is fully remediated,” said EPA Region 2 Administrator Pete Lopez in a press release Monday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, both Democrats, have said they will sue EPA if the federal agency declares dredging of the Upper Hudson complete.

GE spokesman Mark Behan released the following statement Monday afternoon.

"As EPA confirmed in a report last May, and as the data clearly and unequivocally demonstrate, the Hudson River dredging project is achieving EPA’s goals of protecting public health and the environment," Behan said. "The dredging project removed the vast majority of PCBs in the Upper Hudson, as the agency had directed, and PCBs levels in water declined sharply as expected. GE has met or exceeded all of its obligations on the Hudson River, removed twice the volume of PCBs that EPA anticipated, and invested $1.7 billion in what EPA called a 'historic achievement.' While we will continue to cooperate with EPA, New York State, and other interested parties on the floodplains work and other Hudson River environmental projects, we believe the facts clearly warrant a certificate of completion of the dredging project."

Click here for more information on EPA's Hudson River cleanup. 

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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