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  Procrastination on PCBs

  (source: The Gazette)
  C A P I T A L   R E G I O N

  GE seeks dredge study
  Organizations call request a delaying tactic

  BY LEE COLEMAN Gazette Reporter

  General Electric Co. confirmed Thursday the company recommended that an independent study on the effectiveness of dredging to remove PCBs
  from the Hudson River be part of a proposed new federal appropriations bill. The bill - with the attached dredging study request - is currently moving its way through the House. A vote on the bill is expected next week.

  Environmental watchdog organizations maintain the GE tactic is just another attempt to delay the environmental dredging of the upper Hudson
  to remove 2.65 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated river sediment between Fort Edward and Troy.

  The dredging is scheduled to start in summer 2006. But U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say design delays make this
  goal more "challenging."

  "This is just more of the same," said Christian Ballantyne, regional director for the Sierra Club. "We are just troubled that GE and [Rep.
  John E.] Sweeney are trying to delay or slow down the cleanup."

  Melissa K. Carlson, a spokeswoman for Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, said Thursday "the congressman had no knowledge of the NAS [National Academy of Sciences report] language." "We were just as surprised by it as anyone else was," Carlson said.

  Mark L. Behan, a GE spokesman, said General Electric officials recommended to a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that a 2001 National Academy of Sciences report on removal of PCB-contaminated sediments be updated.
  The updated report, which would be started this December and be completed no later than Dec. 1, 2006, would include information on several major environmental dredging projects started in the United States since 2001.

  Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., subcommittee chairman, had GE's request for a new NAS study attached to the large federal appropriations bill. "Our view is that more information is better than less information," Behan said. "More updated information is better than outdated
  information."

  In the years before the EPA issued its 2002 decision that GE should participate in the $500 million dredging of the Hudson, the company
  waged an expensive public relations campaign listing reasons why dredging the Hudson to remove the PCBs was not the correct cleanup
  remedy.

  GE capacitor plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls discharged an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson over a 30-year
  period that ended in 1977 when the practice was banned by the government. PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, are described by the EPA as a probable carcinogen and source of other health problems in humans and animals.

  Even though Ballantyne of the Sierra Club and Rich Schiafo of Scenic Hudson, another environmental group, say Sweeney's "fingerprints" are all over the language of the federal appropriations bill, his office says this is not true.

  However, Sweeney did have language attached to the appropriations bill that directs the EPA to "provide assistance to the maximum extent
  possible, including financial and staffing assistance" to the town of Fort Edward, where a 100-acre river sludge processing and dewatering
  site will be located along the Champlain Canal.
  Both environmental group representatives and GE say that the NAS study itself is not expected to delay the Hudson River dredging project.

  "This is an information-gathering process only," Behan said. He said the NAS study, which will look at the cost estimates of environmental dredging as well as remedial alternatives, is a
  nationwide study, not just a study of the Hudson River project.

  Jeffrey Lieberson, a spokesman for Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, said the language ordering the National Academy of Sciences study was
  "snuck into the report" of the appropriations bill. "He's very troubled by it," Lieberson said of Hinchey.

  Hinchey has arranged for a discussion of the 2006 fiscal year interior appropriations bill next week on the House floor by himself,
  Sweeney and Taylor.  Hinchey will encourage his fellow congressmen to make sure this new
  language does not impede the scheduled start of the Hudson River cleanup.

  Hinchey is also encouraging his fellow Democrats in the Senate, especially New York's Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, to
  ensure the Senate appropriations bill, which is not yet out of committee, includes language urging that the NSA study not impede the
  start of the river cleanup.

  The appropriations bills would eventually be unified and signed into law by President Bush.On GE kicks off ambitious green initiative posted 4 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses

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  Environmental Groups Deride GE Ecomagination

  Environmental groups deride GE 'ecomagination' program

  BY R.J. KELLY Gazette Reporter

  Reach Gazette reporter R.J. Kelly at 395-3198 or
  rjkelly@dailygazette.net.

  A coalition of environmental groups focused on ridding the Hudson and Housatonic rivers of PCBs has taken aim at GE's global "ecomagination" business initiative to market environmentally sensitive technologies.

  Scenic Hudson spokesman Rich Schiafo claimed Wednesday that GE has been dragging its feet in fully funding the planned 2006 dredging of the upper Hudson to remove its polychlorinated biphenyls. "It's far from cooperation," Schiafo said. "It's more like procrastination, and certainly lacks ecomagination."

  The PCBs, considered a probable cause of cancer and other health problems in humans, wildlife and fish, were discharged from GE capacitor plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls into the river for 30 years, ending in 1977 when the practice was banned.

  The Hudson dredging and removal project has an estimated price tag of $500 million, but critics
  say GE has not committed to paying for it. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled in 2002 that GE will participate in the cleanup, but negotiations are still continuing.

  "It's ironic that they are part of the industrial legacy that created the problems, Schiafo said, "and now they're making money on the problems they helped to create."

  Joining in the criticism were the Sierra Club, Environmental Advocates of New York, Housatonic River Initiative and the Housatonic Environmental Action League.

  GE corporate spokesman Peter O'Toole denied Wednesday that the company was the cause of delays during years of discussions with
  federal, state and local officials.

  O'Toole said GE has "already spent $300 million" on clean-up efforts and related studies on the Hudson PCBs. He said debate had involved
  "considerable discussion" among scientists and local residents about whether disturbing the river bottom PCBs by dredging was the right approach. "The science wasn't conclusive," O'Toole said.

  On the Housatonic River near a former Pittsfield, Mass., GE transformer and capacity plant, O'Toole said the company has spent $381
  million, as of April, for remediation of the first half-mile of the contaminated area. The cost for cleaning another 1 1/2 miles of the
  Housatonic is to be shared with the EPA, O'Toole said.

  Environmental groups in Massachusetts and Connecticut are also concerned about downstream areas, as well as plans to clean the land
  around the former plant.

  In a statement, Housatonic River Initiative spokesman Tim Gray called GE's "ecomagination" effort "corporate marketing doublespeak which is
  just another attempt to redirect the public's focus from years of despicable PCB pollution that they have yet to adequately remediate."

  GE Chairman Jeff Immelt launched the ecomagination initiative Monday during a series of speeches and events in Washington, D.C.On GE kicks off ambitious green initiative posted 4 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses

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  GE's Legacy

  That is a pretty slick piece of . . . greenwash. I am probably sermonizing to the congregation here, but the environmental community hasn't forgotten about GE's 20th century legacy.

  GE's PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) contaminated the Upper Hudson River and their promises of pollution-based prosperity decimated the economy and fiber of the Hudson Falls community.  They moved in with the promise of jobs, asked the community to look the other way while they conducted their business, and then took their jobs when leaving town. The PCB contamination on the Hudson and fish advisories that GE left behind are a remnant of the prosperous times of yesteryear.

  http://riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/ge_pcbs

  Here is a Late Winter 2005 Update describing the latest in the slowdown on the Hudson River cleanup.

  http://riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/ge_pcbs/we_are_doing/1045

  GE's corporate scheme of pollution-based prosperity was not limited to the Hudson River in NY. For those in the New England area, GE had a presence on the Housatonic River too.

  http://www.housatonic-river.com/

  I guess that GE is trying to remake its image.  They are thinking about tomorrow, today, but it's apparent that they weren't thinking about tomorrow, YESTERDAY, when they gave away thousands of cubic yards of Free "Clean Fill" (PCB-contaminated soil) to the residents of Pittsfield, MA.  You can click on the link to learn more about this in the movie, Good Things to Life: GE, PCBs, and Our Town.

  http://www.bluehillfilms.com/

  Even the community of Rome, Georgia was not immune to the PCB that was part and parcel of the 3300 jobs at the GE plant there.

  http://www.coosa.org/pcbs.php

  GE's legacy of pollution-based prosperity in the 20th century will not and should not be forgotten even as the company tries to remake itself as an environmental do-gooder for the 21st century.On GE kicks off ambitious green initiative posted 4 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses