The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rejected objections raised by General Electric Co. to a final cleanup plan, issued in February, for toxics in the Housatonic River in New England. But if the conglomerate pursues new legal challenges, it remains unclear how and when the $613-million remediation and monitoring program will proceed for the 125-mile stretch of waterway, which was contaminated by PCBs from manufacturing decades ago.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, leached into the river from GE’s Pittsfield, Mass., electrical transformer plant that operated from 1930 to 1977. Most of the 20 “hot spot” sites along a two-mile stretch have been cleaned up under a 2000 consent decree. GE now must remove PCB-contaminated sediment from the river, riverbanks and some floodplain soil in an additional 11-mile area to reduce farther movement downstream. The Housatonic runs from western Massachusetts through Connecticut to the Long Island Sound.