- The Environmental Protection Agency signed its record
of decision to dredge 150,000 pounds of PCBs from the Hudson River today,
setting in motion a controversial pollution cleanup plan.
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- PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were discharged into
the Hudson River for about 30 years by General Electric Co. from two
manufacturing
plants about 40 miles north of Albany.
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- The EPA plans to dredge PCBs from the mud in the 40 miles
south of those plants in an effort to reduce the level of contaminants
in fish.
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- The EPA believes PCBs might cause cancer and other
serious
health problems.
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- The next step is a design phase, projected to take about
three years, in which the EPA will decide several key issues, including
how fast to dredge and how much stirred-up sediment is acceptable.
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- The entire project is estimated to cost about $500
million.
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- The EPA vowed today to make public involvement a top
priority in the design phase by setting up a field office in the upper
Hudson region where the plan is very unpopular, and by convening a series
of stakeholder meetings to discuss the public process.
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- Meetings about the EPA's plan are scheduled for Feb.
13 in Saratoga Springs and Feb. 20 in Poughkeepsie.
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- http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com
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