Dredging work along the upper Hudson River in Waterford, N.Y., in May 2015. PHOTO: MIKE GROLL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York’s environmental regulator has notified federal officials that General ElectricCo.’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 apackage 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
Years ago GE and their flunky Immelt were big Obama supporters. I hope that they get what they deserve from their friends.
"Basil Segos ....urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to closely scrutinize the effectiveness of dredging". Really? Why?!
EPA Director, Gina McCarthy, would greatly improve her record if she did nothing. Here's an example:
14 Sept 2015 "A congressional panel is criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency (Gina McCarthy) after its refusal to hand over documents related the Gold King Mine spill, an incident in which more than three million gallons of orange, toxic water spilled into the largest source of drinking water in the West, Watchdog.org reported."
“Watchdog.org reported:
For several days, the EPA (Gina McCarthy) didn’t notify the states of Utah, New Mexico or the Navajo Nation that the spill was coming their way. McCarthy waited a week before visiting Colorado and even then she refused to tour Silverton, the town nearest the Gold King mine where EPA contractors unleashed the toxic plume into waterways that feed the Colorado River. “
In the finest corporatist fascist form, Immelt famously has said "Government is our partner." How's that working out for you, Jeff? As he and anyone sentient who knows about this mess understands, the cleanup can't ever be finished. As long as any test can detect a trace of PCBs in Hudson River sediment or river creatures, the NY gubmint (abetted by the neutrality of EPA) will demand more money from GE. It's the only option left for NY and the other rotting states in the socialist NE: businesses are leaving as fast as practical, any productive enterprise would be insane to locate or expand there, and so the gubmint parasites must bleed whatever hosts are still available. Is a bulldogging parasite a "partner"? Ask Jeff.
Since by any definition, Boston is in New England where GE relocated its HQ, GE must be brain dead.
They could flee to Florida or some other place, but I'm not sure that would absolve them from their debt regardless.
@Chris Sykes @David Codevilla Yes GE moved HQ to Boston, where the corrupt and socialist political climate (yes, I know there's a nominally Republican gov--he's in Springfield) is more to Immelt's liking. But even GE isn't craven and stupid enough to locate or relocate any actual manufacturing or production to the NE. Sure they can push paper and poach techies from the local universities, but they sure as heck won't make anything (more) in the region. There is some accountability, if only to shareholders. And you are right, the Hudson River cleanup liability will be with them forever, even if the HQ relocates to Shanghai.
"But, GE, if you pump more $$$$ into the river over the next decade, we'll check those levels." Wink wink
Have you seen those tv ads put out by NY claiming they are a business friendly state? My biggest laugh comes from the line, "the lowest taxes in years."
The other source of PCBs in the 70's was printer's ink. For example reading the Sunday Times might give you more exposure to PCBs than anything that GE did. The bottom line is that PCBs are not harmful to humans and dredging the Hudson further destroys it as a marine habitat.
Watch for a GE "contribution" to the HillBilly foundation, followed by some kind of "resolution" announcement on page ten of the NY Times. A subsequent FOIA inquiry will show that no one recalls who asked for any favoritism in the decision. or who made the decision. The only evidence found was a towel with "ones and zeros" on it that must have been used to "wipe" some digital device clean.
This is just Schneiderman pandering for a 10 billion dollar fine. And Chuckie will jump on the bandwagon and toot his horn.
Classic Liberal government. Mr. Seggos is a Cuomo political pick and classic attack dog. http://marcellusdrilling.com/2015/10/the-dirt-on-basil-seggos-cuomos-disastrous-pick-to-run-the-dec/
Cuomo tries to get GE to relocate to New York. He loses. But he can still send his attack dog to try to inflict pain. Can you imagine groundless his claims must be if even the anti-business EPA says there is no problem? Yet this publicly funded attack dog will never face prosecution for groundless claims, as he would if he was in the private sector.
Just another reason to scale back government, replacing it with more efficient private companies. Of course liberals will fight this tooth and nail, as they cling to their corrupt power, led by Obama and Clinton..
GE needs to make bigger contributions to the Clinton Foundation and the Democratic Party. Get moving!
PCB's are one of the more clearly understood and indisputable bad pollutants in the environment. However, I recall that one of the risks associated with the Hudson dredging was that since PCB's were so heavily covered with silt and sediment that they were very well contained... and that dredging was quite likely to cause their re-release into the river. Obviously, elevated levels in fish would result. Perhaps a bit more time needs to pass before deciding if the work has been successful?
I always serve my bass with PCB sauce. I'd like to invite all the crooked EPA inspectors over to the house to try some. Mmm-mmm, that's good eatin'.
Waiting for the deluge of remarks that environmental regulation is destroying America. Also that PCB's are actually good for you, and that GE should not have to fix the mess they made and pay for the people they crippled and killed.
@Ernest Montague GE got away without being required to pay the full cost of the remediation because they are friends of NYS Democrats as well as the Obamas and the Clintons. They let their tribute payments lapse, so the Democrats are coming back for a second or third bite. GE will do some favors for the Democrats, and later the EPA and state DEC will come back with a finding that what they've done is sufficient.
The PCB's were contained and stable. There was no valid scientific reason to dredge. The project was a punitive damage wrapped in a claim of clean up. They aren't seen a decline in the concentration in fish because the fish had barely any exposure before the project.
It also didn't cripple or kill any human. Maybe some birds a long time ago.
- nice knee drag.
The extortion of corporate America continues. How on earth can a company agree to do anything without a fixed goal post. So....they passed through the Federal goalpost....but the state says they get a bite at the apple too. Ridiculous. Be careful who you sleep with. GE has just be sucker punched.