PCB Cleanup

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination of the Hudson River has been a problem for many years.

PCBs — a danger to animals and humans — are a group of chemicals commonly used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed a decade of investigation and issued a Hudson River PCB cleanup decision in February 2002 calling for the removal of 150,000 pounds of PCBs from the upper Hudson. Under the law, the General Electric Company will be responsible for paying for the cleanup. Now that a cleanup decision has been made the EPA will work with GE and others interested in this cleanup on designing the remediation. As an initial part of this Remedial Design (RD) process, GE and EPA have agreed on a sampling effort to delineate areas to be dredged. EPA is currently negotiating other elements of Remedial Design with GE as well as the final remediation, which is expected to begin in 2009.

Scenic Hudson plays an active role in these efforts and in 1999 helped form Friends of a Clean Hudson, a coalition of national, state and regional environmental groups advocating for the removal of PCBs from the Hudson River.

To learn more about PCB Cleanup visit:

• Overview
• Related Links