GE proposes dredging, sampling and modeling to set standards for final phase of river project
GE today submitted comments on the report issued by a panel of independent scientists who evaluated the Hudson River dredging project and recommended major changes after finding that the project did not and could not meet the performance standards established by EPA. GE thanked the panel for setting forth a road map for a process to improve the project.
The report reinforced that key assumptions made about the project were wrong, including assumptions about the quantity of PCBs that the process of dredging would send downstream. GE's evaluation showed the first phase of dredging released significantly more PCBs downstream than EPA had forecast and led to increases rather than reductions in PCB levels.
As recommended by the peer review panel, GE has offered to conduct additional dredging in 2011 in order to evaluate process modifications that could reduce resuspension and to collect data necessary for EPA to establish new performance standards for the second phase of the project.
