Third five-year review of Upper Hudson River Cleanup begins

The U.S. EPA has initiated its third five-year review of the cleanup of the Hudson River PCBs Superfund site, which extends from Hudson Falls, New York, to New York City.

Dredging to remove polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a 40-mile stretch of the upper Hudson River between Fort Edward and Troy, New York was completed in 2015.

The cleanup was conducted by General Electric (GE) Company under the oversight of and a legal agreement with EPA.

The purpose of this five-year review, which is legally required under the Superfund law every five years after the start of on-site construction at a site, is to ensure that the cleanup is working as intended and protective of people’s health and the environment.

“As we continue our work to monitor and assess the upper Hudson, move forward with the Hudson River floodplain investigation and evaluate how best to assess the lower Hudson, EPA is committed to continuing to fully engage our state and federal partners and the site’s Community Advisory Group during the five-year review process,” said EPA Regional Administrator, Lisa F. Garcia.

“It has been EPA’s long-standing experience on this iconic site that engagement from the public has strengthened our work and served well communities up and down the Hudson.”

EPA will in part be evaluating new data collected since the second five-year review was conducted in 2017. As part of the upcoming five-year review, EPA will review the fish, water and sediment data collected between 2017 and 2021. This five-year review will be one of many future reviews and will not serve as the final assessment of the cleanup, rather, it will evaluate whether the stated goals of the cleanup are being met, or are expected to be met, based on the available data.