Dredging Causes High Levels of PCBs in Air and Water

By Dennis Yusko, Times Union

FORT EDWARD — Federal officials have modified how they dredge the Upper Hudson River after high levels of PCBs were found in the air and water near Rogers Island in Washington County, they said Friday.

Air and water monitoring conducted along the river in Fort Edward last week showed higher-than-allowed levels of PCBs in the air and water contamination of up to 442 parts per trillion, just short of the federal standard of 500 parts per trillion that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said would shut the project down.

“At no point was anybody in danger,” EPA spokeswoman Kristen Skopeck said. “It just told us that we needed to make changes.”

But dredging critics jumped on the findings Friday, calling them a “crisis on the Hudson” and demanding the EPA immediately cease all dredging.

“After years of dismissing the idea that dredging will cause the resuspension of considerable amounts of PCBs, causing levels in water to spike and volatilization into the air, EPA officials now not only admit that resuspension is occurring, but also that noise and air quality levels have reached the threshold that EPA is supposed to use to shut the project down,” Tim Havens, Sr., said in a written statement.

Havens is president of Citizen Environmentalists Against Sludge Encapsulation (CEASE). Its members charged that the EPA was endangering the environment and welfare of local residents.

“EPA is exceeding the safety levels, and they are not even at full production,” Havens said.

The EPA, state Health Department and state Department of Environmental Conservation are monitoring the water and air around Fort Edward to ensure there are no health risks to people along the river, Skopeck said. PCB levels have dropped since General Electric Co. contractors reduced dredging in parts of the river that are most contaminated and changed the ways they handle soil scooped from the riverbed, she said.

The EPA in 2002 ordered GE to remove more than two million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from the bottom of the river between Fort Edward and Troy. GE plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls legally discharged PCBs into the river for 30 years until 1977. PCBs have been found to cause health problems in humans and animals.

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Source: timesunion.com