New York Says 'Work Is Not Done' on GE's Hudson Cleanup
August 22 2016 - 5:10PM
Dow Jones News
New York's environmental regulator has notified federal
officials that General Electric Co.'s seven-year, $1.6 billion
dredging campaign to remove industrial pollutants from the Hudson
River has been inadequate.
Commissioner Basil Seggos of the New York Department of
Environmental Conservation in a letter released Monday urged the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to closely scrutinize the
effectiveness of dredging in its five-year project review, due to
be released by April 2017.
"While EPA's work overseeing the General Electric remedial
dredging project has improved the Hudson River, the work is not
done," Mr. Seggos wrote in a letter to the agency.
With the letter, New York takes the side of groups, including
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other
environmental organizations, that have warned that the dredging
project hasn't lowered the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or
PCBs, in the Hudson enough to meet targets set out in the original
2002 cleanup plan.
In the letter, Mr. Seggos said state officials agreed to the
2002 plan on the condition that removal of PCB-contaminated
sediment would lead to lower concentrations of the chemicals in
fish. "That has not happened," he wrote.
The EPA has disputed those findings. In March, the agency said
the river "appears to be recovering within expectations" based on
samplings of fish from the Hudson. The agency said evidence
gathered so far fails to show "anything other than that the project
is a success."
An EPA spokeswoman said Monday that it will review and respond
to Mr. Seggos' letter. "EPA welcomes New York state's continued
involvement in the Hudson River PCB cleanup," the spokeswoman said
Monday by email.
GE built electrical capacitors—which contained fire-resistant
cooling oil containing PCBs—at a pair of factories along the upper
Hudson River. Over decades, the company dumped hundreds of
thousands of pounds of PCBs into the Hudson, until the late 1970s.
The compounds were banned as a health hazard in 1979.
New York's action could pose a new PCB-related headache for GE,
which has been eager to move on from the cleanup obligations that
have dogged the company through the tenures of two CEOs, including
current Chief Executive Jeff Immelt.
On Monday, GE spokesman Mark Behan said the company continued to
believe the dredging had achieved its goals and that the EPA's
coming five-year review would show that the removal of much of the
PCB pollution, though not all, was cleaning up the river.
"There is no need to speculate about the results of the project.
EPA has repeatedly promised a thorough and rigorous review of the
results based on the most up-to-date environmental data," Mr. Behan
said in a statement.
Mr. Seggos's letter emerged the same day that GE officially
welcomed workers to its new temporary headquarters in Boston, where
the company is relocating after a public search for a new home that
followed its decision to leave Fairfield, Conn. New York offered a
package of relocation incentives to GE but was ultimately
unsuccessful in luring the company's headquarters to the state.
Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 22, 2016 16:55 ET (20:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024