FAIRFIELD, CT.--February 1, 2002--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today officially selected dredging as the clean-up approach for PCBs in the Hudson River, ending the remedy selection phase of EPA's process. While GE does not believe that dredging is the right approach for the river or upper river communities, EPA has the ultimate authority under law to select the clean-up plan.
EPA now has responsibility for leading a process to carry out dredging safely and effectively. The first step is a public process to design the phases of the project and to develop standards to ensure that dredging does more good than harm. We want to play a constructive role in that process and plan to meet with EPA to discuss the next steps.
GE believes that the public process must be a rigorous, open and science-based endeavor to develop design and performance standards that will protect the river and citizens from the impacts of dredging. We look forward to participating in that process.
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Mark Behan, 518/792-3856