![Bird's-eye view of Hudson River from walkway 5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Bird%27s-eye_view_of_Hudson_River_from_walkway_5.JPG)
Between 1947 and 1977,
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
polluted the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
by discharging
polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...
s (PCBs) causing a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river. Other kinds of pollution, including
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
contamination and cities discharging untreated
sewage
Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...
, have also caused problems in the river.
In response to this contamination, activists protested in various ways; for instance, musician
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
founded the
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education. Founded by folk singer Pete Seege ...
and the
Clearwater Festival
The Clearwater Festival (officially the Great Hudson River Revival) is a music and environmental summer festival and America's oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. This unique event has hosted over 15,000 people on a weekend in June ...
to draw attention to the problem.
Environmental activism nationwide led to passage of the federal
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...
in 1972 and the
Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a United States law, passed by the 94th United States Congress in 1976 and administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that regulates chemicals not regulated by other U.S. ...
.
The federal government designated the contaminated portion of the river, long, as a
Superfund
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...
site in 1984.
Extensive remediation actions on the river began in the 1970s with the implementation of wastewater discharge permits and consequent reduction of wastewater discharges, and sediment removal operations, which have continued into the 21st century.
Fish consumption advisories remain in effect.
Types of pollution and other environmental impacts
The
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection ...
(NYSDEC) has listed various portions of the Hudson as having impaired
water quality
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
due to PCBs,
cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...
, and other
toxic
Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...
compounds. Hudson River tributaries with impaired water quality (not necessarily the same pollutants as the Hudson main stem) are Mohawk River, Dwaas Kill, Schuyler Creek,
Saw Mill River
The Saw Mill River is a tributary of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, United States. It flows from an unnamed pond north of Chappaqua to Getty Square in Yonkers, where it empties into the Hudson as that river's southernmost t ...
,
Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Uls ...
,
Hoosic River
The Hoosic River, also known as the Hoosac, the Hoosick (primarily in New York) and the Hoosuck (mostly archaic), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed October 3, 2011 tri ...
, Quaker Creek, and
Batten Kill
The Batten Kill, Battenkill, or Battenkill River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 river rising in Vermont that flows into New York and is a tributary ...
. Many lakes in the Hudson
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
are also listed.
Other ongoing
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
problems affecting the river include: accidental
sewage discharges,
urban runoff
Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater, landscape irrigation, and car washing created by urbanization. Impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots and sidewalks) are constructed during land development. During rain , storms and other precipit ...
,
heavy metals
upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead
Heavy metals are generally defined as ...
,
furans
Furan is a heterocyclic organic compound, consisting of a five-membered aromatic ring with four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. Chemical compounds containing such rings are also referred to as furans.
Furan is a colorless, flammable, highly ...
,
dioxin
Dioxin may refer to:
* 1,2-Dioxin or 1,4-Dioxin, two unsaturated heterocyclic 6-membered rings where two carbon atoms have been replaced by oxygen atoms, giving the molecular formula C4H4O2
*Dibenzo-1,4-dioxin, the parent compound also known as ...
,
pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...
s, and
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. P ...
(PAHs).
Numerous factories that once lined the Hudson River poured garbage and
industrial waste
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...
directly into the river. These factories produced transformers,
capacitor
A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by virtue of accumulating electric charges on two close surfaces insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals.
The effect of ...
s, and electric motors, which used PCBs as dielectric and coolant fluid. This pollution was not comprehensively assessed until the 1970s. By that time, the largest remaining factories in the area were owned by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
, which became primarily responsible for cleaning the Hudson River. Between approximately 1947 and 1977, GE released of PCBs into the river. The PCBs came from the company's two capacitor manufacturing plants at
Hudson Falls
Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill) is a village located in Washington County, New York, United States. The village is in the southwest of the town of Kingsbury, on U.S. Route 4. Hudson Falls is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Are ...
and
Fort Edward,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
(EPA) banned the manufacture of PCBs in 1979.
The bulk of the PCBs in the river were manufactured by
Monsanto Co. under the brand names Aroclor 1242 and Aroclor 1016.
The highest concentration of PCBs is found in the Thompson Island Pool.
Another noted polluter was
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, which operated the
North Tarrytown Assembly
The North Tarrytown Assembly was an automobile factory in North Tarrytown, New York now known as Sleepy Hollow, situated on the Hudson River. The plant was in operation from 1896 to 1996. Originally opened by the Stanley Steam Car Company, the ...
in
North Tarrytown, New York
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is located on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of New York City, and is served by the Philipse Manor stop on ...
(now known as Sleepy Hollow). The plant was in operation from 1896 to 1996. The plant used about 1 million gallons of water per day, which was returned to the river as waste. The plant's industrial waste (primarily
lead chromate
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, l ...
and other painting, cleaning, and soldering chemicals) would be emptied directly into the river. Domestic waste would be processed through the village's sewage treatment plant. Around 1971, the village's Sewer and Water Superintendent assured that the pollution reports were exaggerated, and that he and other residents would swim by a beach nearby, however Dominick Pirone, an ecologist and former director of the Hudson River Fishermen's Association (now
Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It started out as the Hudson River Fisherman' ...
) was quoted as saying: "You can tell what color cars they are painting on a given day by what color the river is."
A 2008 study suggested that
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
in common Hudson River fish, including
striped bass
The striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''), also called the Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous perciform fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has al ...
,
yellow perch
The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...
,
largemouth bass
The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...
,
smallmouth bass and
carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
, declined strongly over the preceding three decades. The conclusions were extracted from a large database of mercury analyses of fish fillets accumulated by NYSDEC and collected over much of the length of the Hudson, from New York City waters to the Adirondack
watershed
Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to:
Hydrology
* Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins
* Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...
. The research indicated that the trends were in line with the recovery that the Hudson River experienced over the preceding few decades, in response to the efforts of activist groups, government officials and industry by cooperating to help clean up the river system.
In 1991,
zebra mussels
The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally Introduced species, introduced to numerous other areas and has become an inv ...
, an
invasive species
An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...
, first appeared in the Hudson River, causing the near-disappearance of native
pearly mussels.
In 2010, the NYSDEC determined that the
Indian Point Energy Center
Indian Point Energy Center (I.P.E.C.) is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchanan, just south of Peekskill, in Westchester County, New York. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of Midtown Manhattan. Th ...
, a
nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...
in
Buchanan Buchanan may refer to:
People
* Buchanan (surname)
Places Africa
* Buchanan, Liberia, a large coastal town
Antarctica
* Buchanan Point, Laurie Island
Australia
* Buchanan, New South Wales
* Buchanan, Northern Territory, a locality
* Buchanan ...
, was violating the
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...
because of its large withdrawals of water from the Hudson, which kills millions of fish and other aquatic organisms each year. The state requested that
Entergy
Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and ge ...
, the plant operator, replace its
fish screen
A fish screen is designed to prevent fish from swimming or being drawn into an aqueduct, cooling water intake, intake tower, dam or other diversion on a river, lake or waterway where water is taken for human use. They are intended to supply debri ...
s with
cooling tower
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...
s to mitigate the environmental impacts.
In 2017 the State of New York and Entergy reached agreement that the Indian Point plant would close in 2021. The plant permanently stopped generating energy on April 30, 2021.
Effects
The PCBs caused extensive contamination of fish in the river and apparently triggered a rapid evolutionary change in the
Atlantic tomcod, which after about 50 years of exposure evolved a two amino acid change in its AHR2 receptor gene, causing the receptor to bind more weakly with PCBs than normal.
The mutation does not prevent the tomcods from accumulating PCBs in their bodies and passing them on to
striped bass
The striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''), also called the Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous perciform fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has al ...
and whatever else eats them.
This system of passing contamination on to larger organisms is also known as
biomagnification
Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is any concentration of a toxin, such as pesticides, in the tissues of tolerant organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain. This increase can occur as a ...
. The toxic chemicals also accumulated in
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...
s that settled to the river bottom.
In 1976 NYSDEC banned all fishing in the
Upper Hudson because of health concerns with PCBs. It also issued advisories restricting the consumption of fish caught within a long segment of the Hudson River from Hudson Falls to
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
.
Fish advisories issued by the
New York State Department of Health
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) is the department of the New York state government responsible for public health. It is headed by Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett, who was appointed by Governor Hochul and confirmed by the S ...
(DOH) remain in effect as of late 2022. DOH recommends eating no fish caught from the
South Glens Falls Dam to the
Federal Dam at Troy. Women over 50 and children under 15 are not advised to eat any fish caught south of the Palmer Falls Dam in
Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...
, while others are advised to eat anywhere from one to four meals per month of Hudson River fish, depending on species and location caught. The Department of Health cites mercury, PCBs, dioxin, and cadmium as the chemicals impacting fish in these areas.
PCBs are thought to be responsible for health concerns that include neurological disorders, lower IQ and poor short-term memory (active memory), hormonal disruption, suppressed immune system, cancer, skin irritations, Parkinson's disease, ADHD, heart disease, and diabetes. PCB contamination in humans may come from drinking the contaminated water, absorption through the skin, eating contaminated aquatic life, and/or inhaling volatilized PCBs. PCB contamination is especially dangerous for pregnant and nursing women. The contamination can reach the fetus and potentially cause birth defects. Contamination through breast milk can also have harmful effects on the child indirectly.
Cleanup
In 1966,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
and
Toshi Seeger
Toshi Seeger (born Toshi Aline Ohta; July 1, 1922 – July 9, 2013) was an American filmmaker, producer and environmental activist. A filmmaker who specialized in the subject of folk music, Toshi's credits include the 1966 film '' Afro-American W ...
founded
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education. Founded by folk singer Pete Seege ...
, an environmental education organization and an actual boat (a
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
), that promotes awareness of the river and its history. Clearwater gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a clean-up of PCB contamination of the Hudson caused by GE and other companies.
[Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Beacon, NY]
"History."
Accessed 2010-10-05. Other specific Hudson watershed problems with which Clearwater is concerned are development pressures in the southern half of the Hudson Valley, pesticide runoff, the
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
west side waterfront,
Indian Point nuclear reactors, and New York/New Jersey Harbor dredge spoil disposal.
In 1972
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
passed the
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...
and established a nationwide discharge permit system for all surface waters. All Hudson River
point source
A point source is a single identifiable ''localised'' source of something. A point source has negligible extent, distinguishing it from other source geometries. Sources are called point sources because in mathematical modeling, these sources can ...
dischargers were required to obtain permits issued by NYSDEC. The restrictions in these permits led to an overall reduction in pollutant loadings to the river, as factories, power plants and municipalities installed or improved their
wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...
systems or made other plant modifications to reduce pollution. Among the prominent sewage plant upgrades was the completion of the
North River Wastewater Treatment Plant
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
in Manhattan, where 150 million gallons per day of untreated sewage was discharged to the river until the plant opened in 1986.
However, persistent pollutants such as PCBs and heavy metals, that had been discharged prior to implementation of the new permit requirements, remained in the sediments of the river.
In 1980,
Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 b ...
(Con Ed) agreed to drop its 17-year fight to build a
pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential ...
facility on
Storm King Mountain, after a legal challenge by the non-profit environmental organization
Scenic Hudson
Scenic Hudson is a non-profit environmental organization in New York that protects land, creates, and enhances parks, and advocates for environmentally responsible policies and development practices.
History
Scenic Hudson was founded as the Scen ...
.
[Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY]
"The Scenic Hudson Decision."
''Marist Environmental History Project.'' Accessed 2010-10-05. The actions of local citizen organizations that led to the Con Ed decision spurred the creation of
Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It started out as the Hudson River Fisherman' ...
, a non-profit environmental organization that grew into a global umbrella organization, the
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is a worldwide network of environmental organizations founded in 1999 in response to a growing movement of organizations with such names as Riverkeeper, Baykeeper and Soundkeeper. By December 2019, the group said it had gro ...
.
Among the initial attempts to clean up the upper Hudson River was the removal in 1977–78 of of contaminated river sediments near Fort Edward. In 1984, EPA declared a stretch of the river, from Hudson Falls to New York City, to be a
Superfund
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...
site requiring cleanup. This hazardous waste site is considered to be one of the largest in the nation. Many programs aim to reduce the PCB pollution.
In 1991, further PCB pollution was found at Bakers Falls, near the former GE Hudson Falls factory, and a program of remediation was started. In August 1995, a reach of the upper Hudson was reopened to fishing, but only on a catch-and-release basis.
Removal of contaminated soil from
Rogers Island was completed in December 1999.
![GE dredging PVC on hudson (7238186516)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/GE_dredging_PVC_on_hudson_%287238186516%29.jpg)
In 2001, after a ten-year study of PCB contamination in the Hudson River, EPA proposed a plan to clean up the river by
dredging
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
more than of PCBs. The worst PCB hotspots are targeted for remediation by removing and disposing of more than 2.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment. The dredging project is the most aggressive environmental effort ever proposed to clean up a river, and will cost GE about $460,000,000. General Electric took the position that dredging the river would actually stir up PCBs. In 2002, EPA ordered GE to clean up a stretch of the Hudson River it had contaminated. EPA also announced that an additional of contaminated sediments in the upper Hudson River would be removed.
GE began sediment dredging operations to clean up the PCBs on May 15, 2009.
This stage (Phase One) of the cleanup was completed in October 2009, and was responsible for the removal of approximately of contaminated sediment, which was more than the targeted amount. Over 620 barges filled with sediment were transported to the processing facility on the Champlain Canal, and over 80 rail cars transported the dredged sediment to a waste facility in Andrews, Texas.
The true scope of Phase One was about more than planned, and Phase Two was to be expanded as a consequence. Phase Two of the cleanup project, led by GE and monitored by EPA, began in June 2011, targeting approximately of PCB-contaminated sediment from a forty-mile section of the Upper Hudson River. Phase Two of the cleanup will take approximately 5 to 7 years to complete.
In 2010, General Electric agreed to finance and conduct a second dredging campaign at the Upper Hudson River between Fort Edward and Troy. These works have been supervised by EPA.
Although the cleanup has been slow, environmental advocacy groups have reached out to the general public on the condition of the river's pollution. Scenic Hudson, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Hudson Riverkeeper, and the
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...
have continued to push for more action from General Electric. After Seeger's death in 2014, EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck stated that "the incredible work" of Seeger and the Clearwater organization helped make the Hudson River cleaner.
Water quality improvement
The most recent comprehensive report on the health of the Hudson River, published in 2020, states that "Water quality in the Hudson River Estuary has improved dramatically since 1972 and has remained largely stable in recent years." Ecological health trends, such as in tributaries and wetlands, are varied in condition.
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site- EPA
Corporate scandals
Environmental issues in New York (state)
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...