New York Demands EPA Not Sign Off on Hudson River Cleanup

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says a state study shows General Electric’s $1.7 billion cleanup of PCB contamination in the upper Hudson River is incomplete and not protective of public health and the environment.

The Democratic governor demanded Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency not issue a certificate of completion that would end Boston-based GE’s responsibility for cleaning the Superfund site.

GE completed removal of 2.75 million cubic yards (2.1 million cubic meters) of polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated river sediment in 2015.

Cuomo says the Department of Environmental Conservation’s 294-page report on the latest sampling data confirms PCB levels remain too high in fish and sediments.

A GE spokesman earlier this month said GE had analyzed the state’s data and found 99.8 percent of samples showed PCB concentrations below EPA’s dredging threshold.