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 Agencys 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 Hudsons 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 ...
I’d be willing to bet that they dredge up some really odd stuff...
Jimmy Hoffa?
Just a question: Is it "dumping" if the material you released was considered innocuous at the time you released it? As opposed to illegal (at the time) dispersal into the environment?
This could have a big effect upon operations that have relied on coal-burning, among other things...
You beat me to it!
There are several people who believe this just stir up crap that’s been covered over for years.
Gadzooks! If that ain't a reason to secede... what is???
Oh, well, time for the season final... of "Desperate Housewives" for us Desperate Old Housebots!
It'll take a dna test to prove it...
While I don't know a lot about this, I do remember reading that stirring up all this sentiment will be worse than just letting it be.
I also remember being told that PCB used to be put on the dirt roads to minimize dust. How come no one wants to dig up those roads?
I’ve felt like that after some late nights, fo sho.
Bacteria Found That Can Clean Up PCBs Without Dredging
On second thought forget it, that would be too easy.
Uh, didn’t they have a documentary of something about how pristine the Hudson is now?
Yeah that is the excuse the Florida enviowackos use for banning drilling for oil or gas off their Gulf shores!
The feds wouldn’t be able to soak GE for billions if they did that, you silly.
Local ping.
No drilling was going on then.
****Twelve dredges are to work round the clock, six days a week, into October, removing sediment laced with the chemicals known as PCBs.****
We have a saying...”When you stir old s#!t it still stinks as bad as the first time!”
Why not leave it alone where it will be covered by other sediments instead of polluting Texas!
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