The EPA has made a plan available for public review that outlines how General Electric will dismantle and decontaminate its 110-acre sediment processing facility that was built to support the dredging of the Hudson River PCBs superfund site.
Some 200 miles of the Hudson River, contaminated by hazardous waste, is classified by EPA as a Superfund site, making it one of the largest in the US.
About 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were discharged into the Hudson River from two GE capacitor manufacturing plants located in the towns of Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, New York, before the 1977, when the agency banned the toxic chemicals.
The plan, called the Processing Facility Demobilization and Restoration Plan, is required by the 2006 legal agreement between General Electric and EPA to conduct the dredging work.
The plan details how GE will take equipment apart and decontaminate it and how it will address decontamination of infrastructure such as concrete slabs, roadways, train tracks and buildings. The EPA will take public input on the draft plan until Sept. 28.
