Another Successful Year of Hudson River Cleanup Draws to a Close; One More Year of Dredging Expected
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Over the next several weeks, clean sand and gravel will be placed over previously dredged areas. The dredged material remaining at GE’s dewatering and processing facility in Fort Edward will be shipped by train to permitted out-of-state disposal facilities by the end of the year.
During dredging, water quality is monitored for compliance with the federal standard under the Safe Drinking Water Act. In 2014, all tests showed the water measured at Waterford and Troy, New York, the farthest downstream monitoring locations in the Upper Hudson River, met the standard. The limits set for the amount of dredged sediment that can be transported downstream were also met. Additional monitoring is conducted as needed during dredging operations to limit “quality of life” impacts on surrounding communities. Air monitors are placed near dredging operations and around the processing facility while work is underway.
The EPA also set a requirement for the amount of capping that is allowed to isolate remaining PCBs on the river bottom. The requirement that capping not exceed 11% of the total project area continued to be met in 2014 with about 7% of the area being capped, not counting those areas where capping is unavoidable.
Over the winter months, the EPA will be reviewing and approving 2015 technical dredging plans. Several logistically challenging areas remain to be dredged next year, including those near dams and shallow areas around islands. Dredging will also continue in a two-mile section of river near Fort Miller that is inaccessible by boat, located between the Thompson Island Dam and Fort Miller Dam. In this section of river, a trans-loading station was constructed on the east shoreline to transfer dredged material into barges located in the Champlain Canal. The trans-loading station will be shut down during the off-season and will resume operations when dredging starts in in the spring.
In early October the EPA announced that GE has agreed to conduct a comprehensive study of contamination in the shoreline areas of the upper Hudson River that are subject to flooding, called floodplains. Under the agreement GE will investigate the PCB contamination in a 40-mile stretch of the Hudson River floodplain from Hudson Falls to Troy, New York and will develop cleanup options. The estimated value of this investigation work is $20.5 million.
For more information about the Hudson River dredging project, visit http://www.epa.gov/hudson.
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