WHEN: Thursday, August 15 at 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Virtual Via Zoom
Scenic Hudson, Riverkeeper, and Hudson River Sloop Clearwater invite you to join the Friends of a Clean Hudson coalition for a virtual update and briefing on EPA’s draft third five-year review on the Hudson River PCBs Superfund site on Thursday, August 15 at 6:00 pm.
On July 10, EPA released its draft third five-year review of the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site. Through these reviews, EPA is supposed to evaluate whether the cleanup action done so far by General Electric was enough to achieve the goals of the project, especially whether the cleanup is protective of human health and the environment. In its latest review, EPA stated, once again, that a protectiveness determination for the Upper Hudson River remedy cannot be made. However, analysis of EPA’s own project data clearly demonstrates that PCB levels HAVE NOT declined enough to reach project goals and ARE NOT declining at the rates expected and needed to finally restore the health of our ecosystems, eliminate fish consumption advisories and fishing restrictions, and protect the health of our communities.
Join us on Thursday, August 15 at 6 p.m. to hear independent experts discuss the problems with EPA’s draft third five-year review conclusions, identify public comment opportunities, analyze current trends in fish and sediment PCB levels, and discuss how upcoming decisions on a nearly 200-mile section of the river could impact human health and the environment. The goal of this presentation is to provide the public with important background information about the Hudson River Superfund Site and highlight critical concerns and flaws observed in the draft third five-year review to arm the public with the knowledge it needs to ask EPA hard-hitting questions during EPA’s public meeting on August 21 and to submit critical comments to the agency on the draft five-year review report.
View the Briefing
BACKGROUND:
For 30 years, General Electric (GE) dumped PCBs into the Hudson River from two manufacturing plants located in the towns of Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, N.Y. High levels of PCBs were discovered in Hudson River fish, and due to the grave public health threat posed by PCBs, the commercial fishing industry was shut down. The EPA designated a 200-mile stretch of the Hudson from Fort Edward to New York Harbor as a Superfund site, and ordered GE to clean up PCB-contaminated sediment in the Upper Hudson River, a 40-mile section of the Hudson River between Fort Edward and Troy, N.Y. Learn more
Learn more about PCB Contamination in the Hudson River:
