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Between 1947 and 1977, the company General Electric polluted the Hudson River with  polychlorinated biphenyls, which is a toxic chemical often produced from factory machines. Although other companies have done this, General Electric's pollution was the most significant. Their actions made the water damaging to those who drank it. The habitat (or environment in which an organism lives) for the organisms in the Hudson was not a good one. There were so many chemicals in the fish that a person would get sick from eating one. The effects of General Electric's pollution are still being felt today.

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General Electric owned many factories surroundeding the Hudson River. These factories dumped garbage and wastes like PCBs into the river. This quickly contaminated the entire body of water.

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How Long Has This Problem Been Going On?

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How Long Has This Problem Been Going On?

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This problem started in the 1940s. Although General Electric has stopped dumping wastes into the Hudson River, the Hudson River waters are still harmful. As of January 2021, a fish advisory remains in place from 1976, which advises not to eat fish from the Hudson.

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What Changes Have Occurred to the Hudson River Because of This?

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What Changes Have Occurred to the Hudson River Because of This?

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There was an increased amount of mercury in the Hudson River fish after the pollution occurred. The PCBs that caused all of the negative effects are still in the Hudson River, however. PCBs are linked to neurological disorders, lower IQ and heart disease. This means less people will eat fish from the River.

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Less fish are being taken from the Hudson. Because of this, there are more fish in the Hudson River. This small change in the community (or population of different species that live in the same place) had a big impact on its food chain (or what organisms consume what other organisms in the habitat). More fish means there are less of the prey that the fish hunt. This change in the ecology (or the relation of organisms to one another) of the River, however, still maintains the delicate balance of an environment.

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Proposed Solutions for Fixing This Problem

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Proposed Solutions for Fixing This Problem

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In the 1960s, two environmental activists founded the organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which advocated for the cleaning-up of the river. Congress has passed laws which make it difficult to dispose of pollutants and wastes into the Hudson. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan to clean up the river by excavating more than 100,000 lbs of PCBs. This plan has been completed and research is being done to see just how successful it was.

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These solutions will most likely be shown to have worked. If everything had gone according to plan, over 2.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment would have been removed. Also, in 2016 a humpback whale was seen swimming in the Hudson. This is a sign that at least some of all the toxins from the Hudson River have been removed.

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1. The deepest point of the Hudson River is over 200 feet.
2. The Hudson River is about 315 miles long.

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Want to learn more about the Hudson River's pollution and cleanup efforts? Here is an interesting link! Do you also want to learn more about the EPA's battle with General Electric to start cleaning up the Hudson? See it here!
Link to the video

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How We Got Here

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of stable chemicals consisting of 209 individual compounds. PCBs were widely used for fire prevention and as an insulator in transformers and capacitors because of their ability to withstand exceptionally high temperatures. They were also used in a variety of other industrial applications, including paints, newsprint, pumps and motors.

Beginning in the 1940s, GE used PCBs as an insulating fluid in electrical capacitors manufactured at two plants along the river in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Albany. When available, the company held valid permits to use and discharge the compound to the Hudson River, but discontinued its use in the mid-1970s when PCB use was phased out in the United States.

Most of the material that was discharged to the Upper Hudson, including PCBs, accumulated behind a dam south of GE's Fort Edward plant. In 1973, the owner of the dam demolished it and the material that had built up behind it washed downstream, settling in sediments.

EPA classified the Upper Hudson River as a Superfund site in 1984. After assessing environmental conditions in the river, EPA issued a Record of Decision for the site rejecting dredging and recommending certain areas on land (known as remnant deposits) be covered with clean material. GE performed this work in the 1990s.

EPA spent 12 years evaluating all of the data on the Hudson River before deciding that dredging was the appropriate environmental remedy. The agency considered ordering an even larger dredging project at that time, but concluded that the negative environmental and community impacts from a larger project would outweigh any environmental benefits. EPA has reviewed and reaffirmed its decision on the scope of dredging as recently as 2012.

Immediately following EPA's decision, GE committed to cooperate with EPA on the Hudson River PCB cleanup. GE collected thousands of sediment samples to determine which specific areas would be dredged and assembled a world-class team of environmental engineers and dredging experts to plan, design and conduct what was one of the largest and most logistically complex environmental cleanups in U.S. history. GE also leased more than 100 acres of farmland in Fort Edward, N.Y., for a massive PCB processing and transportation facility that GE built there to support the work.

The first phase, or first year, of dredging was performed in 2009. Subsequent seasons of dredging were performed from 2011-2015. As a result of the work, the majority of PCBs in the Upper Hudson - more than 300,000 pounds - have been removed. The volume of sediment removed would fill the Empire State Building twice. Dredging was conducted around the clock, six days a week, six months of each year. The project has been hailed by EPA as "a historic achievement" and "enormously successful." EPA has determined the project is meeting the rigorous environmental protection goals it set.

Although dredging activities are completed, GE's work on the Hudson River will continue. GE will collect water, sediment and fish data on the Hudson to evaluate the impact of the cleanup. The data will be used to determine, for example, whether PCB levels in fish have declined as quickly as forecast and to establish the overall rate of recovery. GE also will continue the cleanups of its Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, N.Y., plant sites - cleanups that representatives of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation say have eliminated the sites as significant sources of PCBs to the river. Finally, GE will continue a comprehensive evaluation of river shorelines to determine whether PCBs are present at levels that pose risk to human health and the environment and, if so, how best to address them.

If you have additional questions about GE's work in the Hudson River, email info@hudsondredging.com or contact us at 518-792-4087 or toll-free at 1-888-596-3655.

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Hudson River PCB Dredging Project | About

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How We Got Here PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of stable chemicals consisting of 209 individual compounds. PCBs were widely used for fire prevention and as an insulator in transformers and capacitors because of their ability to withstand exceptionally high temperatures.