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PCBs NJ Hearing Report
by Tom Siciliano Jr.
PCBs NJ Hearing Report
by Tom Siciliano Jr.
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association April 2000 Newsletter)
The US EPA-Region 2 has conducted a series of 22 public hearings on their proposed plan which describes the remedial alternatives considered for the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site. PCBs are toxic materials and are classified as probable human carcinogens. They are persistent in the environment and will not go away by themselves. PCBs are being ingested by fish, birds and wildlife along the river and bioaccumulate in their fatty tissues. The river will not clean itself of the PCBs but they do travel down the river all the way to the ocean.
The last of the hearings was conducted
in Saddle Brook, NJ. The others were in New
York State all the way from Hudson Falls to New York City.
The fact that a hearing was held in New Jersey was in recognition that the
PCB problem is not only New York’s but crosses boundaries, as does the Hudson River. The fish that start their lives and spend the first few years in the Hudson are
eating worms contaminated with PCBs. They
then travel widely for a few years and then return to spawn. This is a global problem and should be treated as
such.
At the last JCAA meeting presentations were heard from Charles Stamm of the Hudson
River Fisherman Association and Tom Siciliano of the Salt Water Anglers of Bergen County
that the JCAA should formally support the EPA proposal.
The plan calls for the targeted dredging of a forty-mile stretch of the river
between Hudson Falls and the Troy Dam. This
section of the river contains the highest concentration of PCBs and over 2.65 million
cubic yards of contaminated sediments containing over 100,000 pounds of PCBs will be
removed. A vote was taken and unanimously
approved.
The Saddle Brook hearing had over 125 people in attendance and almost half of them
spoke in favor of supporting the EPA proposal to remove the PCBs by the most
environmentally suitable method in order to reduce adverse impacts including resuspension
of the sediments during dredging. Only a
handful spoke to oppose the cleanup. The
JCAA and NJ Federation of Sportsmen position is included at the end of this article. This position was stated verbally at the hearing
and then presented to the EPA. Congressman
Frank Pallone has also come out in support of the EPA proposal. The only people opposed to the cleanup are GE and
the towns along the river which who will have their lives disrupted for a few years. These people have questions, which the EPA must
answer in order to assure them that their interests are being protected and that they will
not be put at undue risk during the cleanup. What
these people don’t seem to see is the long-term benefit to both them and society in a
cleaner Hudson River.
It is not too late for your club to also come out in favor of the cleanup. Please take the JCAA letter and put it on your letterhead and send it to the EPA by April 17, 2001. The address is Alison Hess/Doug Tomchuk, Hudson River PCBs Public Comment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 290 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10007-1886. Comments may also be provided electronically by sending email to Hudsoncomment.region2@epa.gov . Additional information on the EPA proposal may be found on the web at http://www.epa.gov/hudson.
There are many confusing stories being circulated about the cleanup. This is not a legal issue about GE having the
proper permits to dump the material. This is
an issue about doing what is right for the environment given our current level of
knowledge of the damage that PCB’s PCBs are doing to the river and the ocean it runs
into. The fish, wildlife and people along
the river are now at risk and we as a society, must do what is best for everyone.
3/7/2001
Letter to the EPA on PCB
Contamination in the Hudson River
The Jersey
Coast Anglers Association and the NJ State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs fully
supports the US EPA in their recommendation to remove the PCBs from the sediments in the
upper regions of the Hudson River.
We agree
with the EPA that the delays have gone on long enough.
We have enough test results. We have enough scientific evidence. We
have studied this issue for 25 years. It’s
time to make a decision. We support the EPA
decision that the best way to restore the Hudson River to a healthy environment is to
remove the PCBs from the sediments. If left in the river sediments these PCBs will
continue to affect the fish and wildlife that surrounds the estuary for generations to
come. Health restrictions on human
consumption will continue and people will have only contaminated fish to harvest from the
Hudson River and surrounding areas.
The Hudson River is the second largest
spawning estuary for the Striped Bass on the east coast. It is also the nursery area for
many species of fish that are used for personal consumption or that are prey for larger
fish. As environmentalists, conservationists
and fishermen, we insist that this critical estuary be cleaned up and “Cleaned
Up Now”.
The protection of this nursery is only
one of the many reasons for supporting the EPA in this cleanup. Consider the health advisories in effect warning
that Hudson River fish should not be eaten or only eaten in very limited quantities. This is not just a Hudson River problem. The striped bass that spawn in the Hudson travel
widely along the coast. We need to consider
that the Striped Bass you catch off Montauk or many areas along the east coast may have
spent the first five years of their life in the Hudson.
Tagging studies show that striped bass spawned in the Hudson migrate from
Maine to North Carolina.
Menhaden mature in the bays and
estuaries of the Hudson River. They are a
vital link in the food chain along the entire coast.
Since they are contaminated with PCBs everything that consumes them becomes
contaminated. This includes bluefish,
weakfish, summer flounder and many other species. In
addition, menhaden are harvested by the reduction industry, turned into fishmeal and fed
to chickens, other livestock and fish raised in aquaculture. The impact of menhaden contamination is wide
reaching and extremely dangerous.
The
EPA classifies PCBs as probable human carcinogens. They
are extremely persistent in the environment and will not go away by themselves. They do not break down. Studies show that, over
time, some degradation of the PCB molecule does occur. That causes an ammonia atom to
break away from the PCB molecule. What
remains is a more toxic PCB molecule much worse than the original.
Fish,
birds, wildlife and humans along the river are ingesting the PCBs. Bioaccumulation is the process of during which
these toxins get into the food chain. Having
these toxins remain in this critical spawning estuary is unacceptable.
The source of the PCBs in the Hudson
obtained by investigating the identifiable “fingerprint” on these PCB molecules. Scientists can tell exactly where they are coming
from. Studies indicate that as high as 80% of the PCBs in the lower Hudson River and New
York Harbor come from a forty-mile stretch of the Hudson River. The highest concentrations
come from 40 “Hot Spots” created by discharges from two General Electric
capacitor plants, one in Hudson Falls and the other at Fort Edward in upstate New York. These two plants discharged an estimated 1.3
million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River between 1947 and 1976. Those discharges led to unhealthy levels of
PCBs to be found in the eggs and the skin of the striped bass in the Hudson River. This finding shut down the commercial fishery in
the Hudson in 1976 and resulted in the health advisories we still experience today. In
some areas these restrictions completely shut down the recreational fishery. PCBs levels became so high that even “Catch
and Release” was banned.
We congratulate the EPA for putting together a very comprehensive plan to clean up
the Hudson. The EPA evaluated 5 possible
alternatives ranging from “no action” to dredging up to 3.82 million cubic yards
of sediment estimated to contain more than 155,000 pounds of PCBs.
We feel that these PCBs do not belong
in the Hudson River. They do not belong in
any river. The Jersey Coast Anglers Association supports the US EPA proposal that the best
and fastest way to restore the quality of the Hudson River Estuary and the wildlife that
surrounds it is to remove these PCBs using environmentally safe methods of removal.
Sincerely,
Thomas Fote
Legislative Chairman JCAA &
NJSFSC