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EPA Approves GE Plan to End Dredging of PCBs from Hudson River

General Electric will shut down a plant used to treat polluted sediment over the past seven years

General ElectricLinks to an external site. Co. GE 0.64 % Links to an external site.Thursday won approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to shut down a 100-acre plantLinks to an external site. the company has used during a seven-year project to treat polluted sediment dredged from the bed of the Hudson River.

Approval to shut down the facility in Fort Edward, N.Y., is one of the final steps before the EPA formally declares GEs dredging of the upper Hudson over, bringing an end to one of the most contentious and costly phases of the companys largest-ever environmental cleanup effort.

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In its decision, the EPA noted that some parties wanted the plant to remain in operation, so that it could be used to treat sediment from other dredging in the Hudson. But no such opportunity is imminent for future dredging of the river, the EPA said. Critics, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, opposed letting GE shutter the facility, saying that more dredging of the Hudson is needed to meet the EPAs goals for removing pollution from the river.

Contractors for GE have been dredging parts of the river bottom in a 40-mile stretch of the Hudson since 2009 to remove contaminants called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, carcinogenic chemicals that GE dumped into the river from two factories for more than four decades, ending in the late 1970s.

The likely close of this chapter in GEs lengthy relationship with New York comes as the company weighs an overture from the statLinks to an external site.e to move back its corporate headquarters after more than 40 years in Connecticut. GEs facilities in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls made electrical capacitors, and were the sources of the PCBs that the company dumped into the river for more than four decades.

GE fought proposals to dredge the Hudson for years, and ultimately acquiesced in a consent agreement with the EPA in 2006. Now, both GE and the EPA say the project has been a success. The EPA acknowledges that it will be decades before PCB levels have declined enough to make fish from parts of the Hudson River safe to eat for humans and other mammals. The companys contractors have removed roughly 2.75 million cubic yards of sediment from the river bottom, containing some 310,000 pounds of PCBs. The sediment has been dried and pressed in massive machines on the plant site in Fort Edward, then shipped by rail to special landfills in Oklahoma, Michigan, and Ohio. GE says it has spent $1.6 billion on the cleanup; the EPA puts the total at roughly $2 billion.

The work isn't over for GE, however. With the EPA, GE is conducting a $20 million study of how to restore 6,000 acres of land on both banks of the Hudson that were also contaminated by PCBs from GEs dumping. The next phase isn't expected to be as costly as the dredging. Matthew Traver, the mayor of the village of Fort Edward, said the closure of the GE facility and the end of the dredging project will be welcomed by many residents and businesses of the region. The dredging work conducted has increased business in the town, and the side effects of the work havent been as bad as feared before the work began.

I think overall it wasnt nearly as bad as people thought it was going to be, he said. And I think anything theyve taken out has certainly been a positive thing for the river.

For now, Fort Edward faces a bigger problem from GEthe closure of the companys factory in town, where local officials have been told the final day for roughly 200 workers could come in January. That factoryone of the sites that polluted the Hudsonhas made electrical equipment for generations. Mr. Traver said many locals who previously fought EPA efforts to make GE dredge the Hudson did so because they wanted to take the side of a prominent, longtime local employer in the dispute. Here weve got GE, that polluted the heck out of this community, and thats no secret to anyone, he said. They no sooner get done with this project than they pull up stakes and say, Were moving. It really is a slap in the face, to be honest with you.

A GE spokesman responded in an email message that the decision to close the Fort Edward capacitor factory and shift its operations to Clearwater, Fla., had been a very difficult one, but would increase efficiency and simplify the companys operations.

Our dedicated employees worked diligently to support the Fort Edward operation in the face of rising global competition, spokesman Mark Behan said. The transfer of work will be completed by Jan. 23, 2016, but will have no effect on GEs commitment to meet our environmental cleanup obligations for the grounds of the factory, he said. New York state is overseeing cleanup at GEs Fort Edward and Hudson Falls factory sites, which were the origin of the PCBs GE has been dredging from the Hudson River.

Q U E S T I O N S

1. Explain GEs involvement and wrongdoing with PCPs and the Hudson River.

2. How has GEs decisions and actions impacted the environment?

3. Has GE taken enough action to clean up the Hudson River? Explain your responses in detail.

4. What is the long-term impact of GEs disposal of harmful chemicals into the Hudson River?