Across the nation, EPA has a crucial role in ensuring companies clean up their current and historic toxic discharges. With recent events in the Gulf, people are more aware than ever that when natural resources are damaged, ordinary citizens suffer the most, both in health and economic well-being. Nowhere is that truer than in the Hudson River – which makes GE’s completion of the long-delayed PCB cleanup both urgent and essential.
For more than three decades, General Electric discharged more than 1.3 million pounds of dangerous toxic chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, into the Hudson River, one of the most important and cherished rivers in North America. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency declared a 200-mile stretch of the river a federal Superfund site — the largest such site in the nation.
GE is once again seeking to delay the process and avoid making a commitment to finish the clean-up. While GE has offered to continue work next year, it is now asking the EPA for permission to retain the right to walk away from the rest of the second and final phase of the remediation, which includes the remaining 35 miles of contaminated hotspots. If GE eventually opts out of completing this “Phase 2” — which experts estimate could require seven to nine years more work — huge amounts of PCBs would continue to pollute the river.
Join our campaign to ensure that GE resumes dredging in 2010 and will continue until the cleanup is done. Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and our partners Natural Resources Defense Council, Riverkeeper, and Scenic Hudson, working in concert sent this jointly written letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urging her to ensure that GE commits to finishing its clean up of its toxic PCBs from the Hudson River now!
What YOU Can Do:
Send a message urging EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to ensure that GE commits to finish the cleanup of its toxic PCBs from the Hudson River now. We will also copy Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, to be sure GE knows that we want them to commit this year, and without delay, to assuming full responsibility for cleaning up the contamination that they caused. Click here to send a message to EPA Administrator Jackson.
We also invite you to also contact Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO, to push him to do the right thing. Send your email to info@hudsondredging.com. Please use the subject line: “ATTN: Jeffrey Immelt—Be Responsible, Be a Leader, Give Our Hudson GE’s Best”
The EPA is ultimately responsible for making certain that GE fully cleans up its toxic mess. We cannot lose this opportunity to finally clean up the PCB contamination and help return a healthier Hudson River to the communities that live along its banks.
