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EPA Reviewing Hudson River PCB Cleanup In Hyde Park

HYDE PARK, N.Y. -- On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will have a public workshop to discuss the status of the second five-year review for the Hudson River PCBs Superfund site.

Hyde Park will host one of the workshops to discuss the plan and progress of the Superfund cleanup effort.

Hyde Park will host one of the workshops to discuss the plan and progress of the Superfund cleanup effort.

Photo Credit: Zachary Croce

This is the second of several workshops involving the public during the five-year review process for the site. The purpose of the review is to evaluate whether the Hudson River cleanup is working as intended.

The EPA has noted that, "between 1947 and 1977, an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs were discharged into the river from two General Electric capacitor manufacturing plants located in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls." The cleanup work has included six seasons of dredging a 40-mile length of the upper Hudson River.

The first five-year review of the work for this Superfund site was completed in 2012.

The Oct. 13 workshop will include an overview of the review process and a summary of the topics that have been discussed to date, during the ongoing monthly meetings of the review team. That team includes representatives from a number of state and federal agencies, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation, state Department of Health, state Canal Corporation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the site's community advisory group.

The second five-year review will be completed by April 23, 2017.

The workshop will begin at 4 p.m., in multipurpose rooms B and C of the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home, 4097 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park.

For more information about this Superfund project, including an extensive map of the dredging areas, visit its EPA's website.

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