In a consent decree signed October 6, the General Electric Co has agreed to dredge the hottest areas of PCB-contaminated sediment in the Hudson River and to build a sediment transfer and processing facility. The work could cost between $100 million to $150 million and is scheduled for a 2007 completion.
Fairfield, Conn.-based GE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Justice Dept. reached an agreement in federal district court in Albany, N.Y. The pact stipulates that GE will also pay EPA $78 million for past and future enforcement costs. A five-year final clean-up will follow an initial phase 1 performance review. "This is a major breakthrough for all friends of the Hudson River because it commits GE to begin dredging and to remove the contamination," says EPA Region 2 Administrator Alan J. Steinberg. GE has already paid $37 million in a previous settlement.