Posted on 05/17/2009 5:51:52 PM PDT by neverdem
MOREAU, N.Y. — Twenty-five years after the federal government declared a long stretch of the Hudson River to be a contaminated Superfund site, the cleanup of its chief remaining source of pollution began here Friday with a single scoop of mud extracted by a computer-guided dredge.
Twelve dredges are to work round the clock, six days a week, into October, removing sediment laced with the chemicals known as PCBs. Mile-long freight trains running every several days will carry the dried mud to a hazardous-waste landfill in Texas.
An estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, flowed into the upper Hudson from two General Electric factories for three decades before they were banned, in 1977, as a health threat to people and wildlife. In high doses, they have been shown to cause cancer in animals and are listed by federal agencies as a probable human carcinogen.
“Today, the healing of the Hudson begins,” George Pavlou, the Environmental Protection Agency’s acting regional administrator, said under bright skies in a riverbank ceremony here as federal, state and local officials, G.E. representatives and environmental campaigners looked on.
Those gathered scrambled from a white tent to get a good view as a blue clamshell bucket rose slowly from the riverbed holding the first five cubic yards of mud. A lone duck paddled downriver along the far bank.
The dredging operation is the first phase of an operation that, if it continues as projected through 2015, could largely eliminate the Hudson’s last significant toxic legacy from an era of unfettered industrial activity and dumping.
While the Superfund site itself is 197 miles long, stretching from Hudson Falls, N.Y., to the southern tip of Manhattan, the initial phase involves spots along a six-mile segment south of Fort Edward, the hamlet across the river from this...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
LOL! Thanks for the link.
I went swimming in the Hudson once, back in the 70s. Broke out with an itchy rash all over my body. Never swam in it again.
GE the Green Company Right\s
I grew up on the Hudson River. It was bad and had been cleaned up pretty good during the 70’s and 80’s. You can fish pretty clearly now and I think that the Hudson River will be stirred up badly by this round. Not a good idea and I do not understand why it is happening after all the progress.
It always seems that the goobermint chooses a technology that either makes the problem worse, or at best just plain does not work. Bioremediation is a proven technology for treating numerous contaminant components in effluents. Dupont has been successfully using biotreatment to eliminate nickel from their effluent (Fluor Corporation was the E&C on that project).
See my rsponse to Vince Ferrer. It would have been much better to inject PCB digesting bugs directly into the location of PCB contamination. But that is too obvious, so the politician (Dumbocrat of course) as a rule picks a method that make it worse. Just like corn based ethanol. And when the situation does gets worse, well, IT’S BUSH’S FAULT! (standard liberal way out of anything)
“And when the situation does gets worse, well, IT’S BUSH’S FAULT! (standard liberal way out of anything)”
Perhaps more significant is that goobers in gubberment agencies can clamor for more funds to ‘keep cleaning the Hudson’.
More Funds - what fun!
funny, I thought it was Albany.
Definately - at least when the legislature is in session.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.