The federal Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, June 28, in Poughkeepsie to discuss its review of General Electric’s cleanup of PCB-contaminated sediment in the upper Hudson River.
It will be the first of two meetings to present the findings of EPA’s second five-year review and to answer questions. The next meeting is scheduled for July 19 in Saratoga Springs.
The EPA is accepting public comment on its report, available at epa.gov/hudsonriverpcbs, through Sept. 1. They may be mailed to Gary Klawinski, Director, EPA Region 2, Hudson River Office, 187 Wolf Road, Suite 303, Albany, NY 12205 or emailed to [email protected].
The hearing takes place at 6 p.m. in the Terrace Ballroom of the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel at 40 Civic Center Plaza.
Riverkeeper and our partners encourage the public to attend this very important public meeting.
We’re asking supporters to assemble at 5:30 p.m. in Poughkeepsie’s Mural Square for a rally before the workshop, then we will march together to the EPA meeting. Wear green to show your support for more action on PCBs! See riverkeeper.org/pcbs.
On June 1, EPA released its second five-year review of the Superfund cleanup. The report includes a misguided determination that the cleanup efforts to date “will be protective of human health and the environment” in the Upper Hudson River, a 40-mile stretch above the Troy Dam. EPA concluded that the dredging portion of the cleanup, which started in 2009 and ended in 2015, is working as designed above the Troy Dam, even though the cleanup does not currently protect people or wildlife from PCB contamination. EPA admits that the Lower Hudson River, a 150-mile stretch below the Troy Dam to Manhattan, is not responding to the cleanup as anticipated and more investigation is needed.
Analyses by other federal and state agencies shows the cleanup is failing to meet EPA’s own targets for making fish from the Hudson River edible without endangering human health.
New Yorkers have a right to a clean and healthy Hudson. We need as many voices as possible to stand up for the river, its life and our health.