Groups say more cleanup required

SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y. » Environmentalists are stepping up calls for General Electric Company to do more Hudson River PCB cleanup, before such work is declared complete.

GE removed about 310,000 pounds of PCBs, a suspected carcinogen, and 2.75 million cubic yards of sediment from the Hudson River during an estimated $2 billion dredging project from 2009-15.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has said this work, plus natural remediation, will eliminate threats to human health, although not as fast as hoped for — at least another 55 years. Critics say too many PCBs were left behind and they want

EPA to make GE remove more, even if it means more dredging.

“You cannot give them a certificate of completion without completing remediation,” Althea Mullarkey of Poughkeepsie-based Scenic Hudson told Gary Klawinski, EPA Hudson River project manager, on Thursday.

Klawinski updated members of a Community Advisory Group about the Superfund project’s status at Saratoga Town Hall, in Schuylerville.

Last Dec. 23, GE submitted an extensive report to EPA, detailing everything that took place during dredging. EPA is currently reviewing the document and must respond to GE by this Dec. 23.

Critics of the dredging project are concerned EPA might declare in-river PCB cleanup complete.

In a Sept. 16 letter to EPA, the state attorney general’s office said, “We believe that additional steps are necessary to assure ... the remedy is fully protective of human health and the environment.”

Separately, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has criticized the GE project, too.

“A remedy that takes 55 years to be protective is not protective,” DEC geologist Kevin Farrar said recently. “Our position is that EPA should havemade them (GE) do more.”

DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos, who has also voiced concerns about the river’s safety, is expected to submit formal comments to EPA next week. Based on previous comments, it’s likely he, too, will ask EPA not to declare the river cleanup complete, Farrar said Thursday.

Klawinski declined comment about whether EPA plans to approve or disapprove a certificate of completion by Dec. 23, or if it will simply respond to the dredging report GE submitted last year.

“We’re still reviewing the report,” he said. “The question we’re asking ourselves is, did GE do the work required under the consent decree?”

Floodplains

Separate from dredging, GE and the EPA have begun sampling numerous shoreline properties along the river where PCBs might have been deposited during f looding. Results will be shared directly with property owners as they become available, Klawinski said.

Places where PCBs are found not only pose a health threat, but could negatively impact property values as well.

Julie Stokes, representing Schuylerville Area Chamber of Commerce, said an outside consultant, such as an environmental attorney, should be made available to help residents.

“There should be some resource other than GE and EPA to help people think though those issues,” she said.

Klawinski said discussions with property owners have gone smoothly do date, and he doesn’t believe such steps are necessary.

However, another advisory group member supported Stokes’ call for an independent party to help residents.