DEC ramps up pressure on EPA in Hudson River PCB cleanup
State issues review of cleanup even as EPA is working on its own
The state Department of Environmental Conservation fired off a report on the effectiveness of the Hudson River Superfund cleanup Tuesday.
The findings? Not good.
The report found the cleanup, conducted by General Electric Co. and overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has failed to meet the project's goals.
It came as the EPA is conducting its own five-year review mandated by the Superfund law.
At issue is whether GE should be forced to dredge additional contaminated sediment beyond what was mapped out in its 2002 Superfund agreement.
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The state said that before any determination is made, the EPA should compel GE to gather more samples quickly, test them and dredge more as needed.
The company dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls — a fire retardant and insulator that is a probable carcinogen — in the Upper Hudson for decades before stopping in the 1970s.
GE has spent more than $1 billion removing 2.75 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment containing 310,000 pounds of PCBs, more than twice what was originally estimated. EPA labeled the cleanup a success.
If more is to be removed via the Superfund agreement, the EPA — not another agency — typically would need to demonstrate the work has failed to meet certain benchmarks.
"The EPA will take DEC’s recommendations into consideration as part of the agency’s ongoing five-year review for the site," EPA spokeswoman Larisa Romanowski said. "EPA will consider the comments as part of the public record, along with other comments received."
Tuesday's announcement underscored the increasing tension between the two agencies. Indeed, the DEC has been a vocal proponent of additional dredging ever since it broke a longstanding — and to some, a puzzling — silence in August.
Two other agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, have said the river's recovery will take much longer than originally predicted and that too much heavily contaminated sediment will be left behind.
In November, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos vowed that if the EPA did not compel more testing of river-bottom muck, the DEC would do so on its own.
Last week, EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck fired back, saying the agency disagrees with the state's conclusion the sampling program has been inadequate.
On Tuesday, Seggos responded, saying Enck's Dec. 16 letter "makes clear that (the) EPA has failed to recognize the importance of supporting environmental decisions with sound science."
Seggos also highlighted concerns about PCB contamination far south of where the dredging occurred in the Upper Hudson. The data, he said, demonstrates that fish are affected not by what flows from upriver, but from the sediment immediately beneath and floating around them.
Such a statement, in theory, brings the entire length of the river into question.
The timing of the DEC's response is noteworthy for another reason: Some are concerned the last chance for intervention from a higher power may evaporate with President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration..
"Now is the time for President Obama to act in the final days of his administration and direct the (EPA) to acknowledge the latest scientific data," Ned Sullivan, president of the Poughkeepsie-based nonprofit Scenic Hudson, said in a statement Tuesday.
John Ferro: 845-437-4816, jferro@poughkeepsiejournal.com, Twitter: @PoJoEnviro