PCB's in The Hudson and Elsewhere

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mega26jan26,0,6619434.story?coll=la-home-headlines

When looking at the Hudson dredging project it is important to realize how sizeable the project is. The project is estimated to remove 2 million cubic yards of mud and take 6-8 years. The mere size of the project alone is the most daunting factor. In the past dredging has been successful on smaller scales. For example, as the website that Jane Barnes had listed earlier, Clearwater claims that a part of Lake Champlain near Plattsburg has recently been dredged successfully. This project was about one fourth the size of the Hudson project and took about three years. Concern about whether the dredging process will be effective on such a larger scale is warranted. Adding to this concern is that fact that no project has ever been attempted of this size. It is understandable, now that GE has been mandated to fund the dredging, that they have taken a long time to start the project. It is important to take precautions to make sure the project is done well.
Secondly it is very interesting how many mega clean ups, clean ups expected to cost more than 50 million $, there are in the United States. Including the Hudson there are 154 sites across the country labeled mega sites. Although New Jersey has the most of these sites out of any state, 18, California has 16 mega sites all ranging in cost from 100-450 million $, this raises serious concern.
Who is going to pay for all of this? With the re-emergence of popular support for the environment in recent years it would seem as if funding would be adequate. Unfortunately this has not been true. The EPA analyses claims that with inflation, the funding has declined 40 percent.
Maybe if GE eventually dredges parts of the Hudson, and they are successful, they could act as a role model for other polluters to clean the environmental mess they created in the past. On the contrary, if the Hudson River project proves unsuccessful and the pcb’s are not removed, it could be a major set back for all environmental dredging projects. It will be a long time before my speculation can be proven.