Dredging in Hudson River Nears Completion
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
After six years of digging, General Electric Co. expects to finish this year removing some 2.7 million cubic yards of contaminated river sediment in upper Hudson River in Waterford under its landmark Superfund agreement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
AP reports that long after the last barge dredging toxins from the bottom of the upper Hudson River moves on, scientists will track the slow fade in contamination levels.
General Electric expects to remove enough sediment to fill two Empire State Buildings, but environmental advocates say without more work, 40 percent of the PCBs will be left in the river.
After six years of digging, crews will have removed most of the PCBs on the river bottom discharged decades ago from two GE plants upriver.
The 315-mile Hudson River is steeped in American history. It guided Henry Hudson in search of a northwest passage and served commerce as a transportation route during the Industrial Revolution.