EPA's decision to dredge the upper Hudson River

[brendanc]

GE's opposition to the EPA's decision to dredge the upper Hudson river. Read this: http://www.hudsonvoice.com/
Looking for some input on this matter. GE seems to back their statement with a lot of facts.

EPA Over-reaction Leads to Unfounded Public Fears
An Oct. 19 opinion column in The Wall Street Journal today takes EPA to task for over-reacting in its handling of some environmental issues such as asbestos and PCBs. The column notes that such action often promotes public fears that have no basis in scientific fact. To read the article, please click here http://www.hudsonvoice.com/.

Update on PCBs and human health

GE has completed a summary of the most recent research on PCB exposure and human health. The conclusion: more than 100 human health studies have found no evidence that PCBs cause cancer or other serious illnesses in people. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates PCBs as "probable human carcinogens" based on studies in which rats were fed very high doses of PCBs in their diets. To date, EPA has not revised its regulation of PCBs to incorporate the vast human health data. Click here http://www.hudsonvoice.com/ to read the report.

GE Statement on Hudson River

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - August 1, 2001 -The General Electric Company today issued the following statement concerning EPA's decision to proceed with dredging of the Upper Hudson River:

"GE is disappointed in the EPA's decision to undertake a massive dredging project of the Upper Hudson River, which will cause more harm than good.

"This is a loss for the people of the area who overwhelmingly oppose this project and the decades of disruption it will bring to their communities. It appears that neither sound science nor the voices of these residents played a part in the EPA's decision.

"GE has invested $200 million in Hudson River research and restoration projects over the past 20 years and has met every commitment made to state and federal regulators. This had led to remarkable improvement in the river during this period.

"GE calls on the EPA to make public its draft decision so that GE, local river residents and all impacted parties can review the plan and participate in the process."

Rep. Sweeney and New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno oppose EPA’s dredging plan
Click here http://www.hudsonvoice.com/ to read their statements

50,000 and Counting

Postcards, E-mails and Telegrams Against Dredging Pour Into EPA

EPA has now received more than 50,000 postcards, petitions, e-mails and telegrams from people opposed to the massive and destructive Upper Hudson River dredging project it has proposed. More than 60 local communities have opposed dredging, and local newspaper polls show the public opposes dredging 2 to 1.

[MMT]

Bren, where do you stand on it?? As a tournament angler you are up there more than me. I know people who live and fish on the river all year and there are two trains of thought. The first is let sleeping dogs lie. Any disturbance of the river bottom is bound to kick up contaminated silt and spread it farther throughout the system. Also this freshly kicked up silt will now be on the surface layer of the river bed as opposed to being beneath it....possibly doing more damage. A dredging can't possibly remove all of the contaminants and the people I've spoken to about this would just assume leave it be. No further exposure. On the other side of the coin a cleanup is a great way for big business to make amends with the taxpayers for accidentally damaging a resource. I for one don't trust any internal studies that companies do to convince the public they are not killing the environment. Ge's study saying that PCB's are not proven to cause cancer...is self serving and in no way was done arbitrarily. The Fed. Gov't, EPA and NYSDEC are obviously concerned enough to have gotten involved by regulating and imposing restrictions. I don't feel dredging can be successful as I am concerned with reintroducing or stirring up contaminants to the system. Perhaps some of the contaminants can be removed but no chance for a complete clean up...it is just impossible...next, consider this...where the hell are they going to put the contaminated sediment??? Barrel it up??? Dump it into the ocean, send it to a treatment plant???.....won't work. To time and cost comsuming and there is just too much work to be done. I've read a few articles about this in the past but nothing too recent, forgive me if my points have been addressed in recent articles. I'm no tree hugger but I think that this is irreversable damage that would be made worse if disturbed. Now consider this.....from a fishermans perspective, I can almost guarantee that a dredging operation would all but shut the river system down. Yes, we aren't eating the fish but we are handling them and I wouldn't be suprised to see a closed season imposed.

[brendanc]

MMT,

Great points and I couldn't agree more. I think they should leave this one alone. The GE sutdies sound to me like the old tabacco company cliams that "Smoking doesn't give you cancer, or other deases or health problems". Bottom line is that big businesses are always going to be able to damage and eventually destroy our evironment because they are protected by the government.

They can only be fined $10,000 per day for criminal actions, like toxic waste dumping. If they were to try and dispose of these hazardous materials, it could cost them millions... For them, it's just smart business to dump it.

The laws that protect these idiots, realy need to be changed...

BC