Ruling Orders GE PCB Cleanup, But Start of $613M Fix Is Unclear

已解决的GE工厂 — **然后现在**十年前,通用电气(General Electric)矫正两英里s of the Housatonic River tainted with PCBs from a defunct, Pittsfield, Mass., factory (above), but it may still fight a “rest of the river” cleanup ruling.Photo: US EPA

letter on tree — **然后现在**十年前,通用电气(General Electric)矫正两英里s of the Housatonic River tainted with PCBs from a defunct, Pittsfield, Mass., factory, but it may still fight a “rest of the river” cleanup ruling.Photo: US EPA

2016年11月2日

No Comments

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.

清理包括土壤和sed的组合iment removal, riverbed capping and natural recovery monitering in selected reaches of the river. Some contaminated soil in the 10-year floodplain will be removed, and some PCB-contaminated riverbanks will be stabilized using bioengineering techniques to restore disturbed banks. All excavated contaminated soil and sediment will be shipped out of state to a licensed disposal facility. The agency is using an “adaptive management” approach that allows for the use of the best available technologies and approaches. Innovative technologies will be used to treat the PCBs if they are proven to be effective. Activated carbon will be used in some areas to reduce the bio-availability of the PCBs.

GE发言人苏珊·毕晓普（Susan Bishop）说，通用电气尚未决定在行政上还是在联邦法院挑战EPA拒绝其异议并希望解决该决定的缺点。她说：“通用电气会清理户外'河的其余部分。'唯一的问题是如何清理。”GE曾主张现场处置，称EPA的最终决定是“任意，反复无常和非法的”，因为现场处置不会导致人类健康或环境的不合理风险。除非GE寻求补救，否则EPA的决定将成为10月24日决定后的最后30天。清理将花费大约两年的时间才能完成初始设计和13年的实施。

EPA区域顾问Carl Dierker说：“ GE没有提供足够的信息来确定EPA的结论是不正确的，不合理的或不支持的。”“鉴于与这种大小和复杂性的站点相关的范围和可变性……该方法是完全合理的，并且得到了数据的支持。”

GE在Housatonic清理的前两个阶段花费了约4.35亿美元。第一阶段于2002年完成，包括来自变压器工厂的上半英里下游。1.5英里的第二阶段于2006年底完成。EPA在2014年提出了河流的计划，GE在2016年正式抗议。此外，在同意书学位之前，EPA已将清理工作定向了一个严重污染上游的一部分。结果，GE挖掘并处置了7,230立方英尺的沉积沉积物和河岸土壤。通过将板块安装到河中，将板块安装在板块周围，脱水并用标准的挖掘设备脱水并清除沉积物，从而“干燥”进行沉积物清除。

Meanwhile, EPA next April will issue a final report on the effectiveness of GE’s six-year, $1.5-billion effort to dredge 2.75 million cu yd of PCBs from the upper Hudson River from a defunct factory in Troy, N.Y. Work was completed last year. Media reports say GE removed twice the amount of PCBs that originally was estimated, but officials are just beginning analysis of toxic levels in fish and will start long-term sediment monitoring this fall. Also, some activists want dredging of 136 more acres.

Mary B. Powershas reported on engineering and construction issues in the global energy and environmental sectors for more than 30 years from Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Ala. She formerly wrote for the Platt's group of energy sector publications under McGraw Hill and S&P Global that includedInside EnergyandMegawatt Daily,and was state editor for the Lexington, Ky.,Herald Leader。Mary has a master’s degree in journalism from The American University.