WASHINGTON - The US government and General Electric Co. said Thursday they reached an agreement to begin dredging New York's Hudson River to remove toxic waste.
The effort to remove polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a 43-mile stretch of the Hudson River is due to begin in 2007 under the terms of the agreement filed in federal court in Albany, New York.
GE said it has committed $111 million to the US Environmental Protection Agency for past costs and future oversight of the work. The EPA said GE has paid $37 million and the new pact calls for it to pay up to $78 million more.
"This is an important milestone in this complex environmental project that will result in a healthier river, providing vast economic and recreational opportunities," EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said in a statement.
The government says GE released large quantities of PCBs into the river from two major electrical equipment manufacturing facilities along the river for about 30 years, ending in the 1970s.
PCBs were widely used for fire prevention and insulation in the manufacture of transformers because of their ability to withstand high temperatures. PCBs can accumulated in fish, posing a cancer risk to people who eat the fish.
The EPA has estimated the total cost to be $500 million to remove an estimated 150,000 pounds of PCBs.
In phase one of the project, GE will hire contractors to conduct the dredging and construct and operate a sediment processing facility and then transport the dried sediment for final disposal outside the Hudson Valley.
Each week, up to 250 rail cars will transport sediment from the processing facility, said GE.
There will be an independent review of phase one, that aims to remove about 10 percent of the contaminated sediment, before further dredging is conducted.
Critics of the dredging have charged it could stir up contaminants and cause more harm than good.
"We will work with EPA, the State of New York and other stakeholders to ensure this project is conducted safely and in a way that addresses both PCBs in the river and the concerns of local communities that may be impacted by the project," said Stephen Ramsey, GE's vice president of corporate environmental programs.
GE, which had net income of $4.65 billion in its second quarter, did not comment on what impact, if any, it would have on its earnings.
The company Thursday raised its profit forecast for the year and its chief executive said the US economy was "pretty darn good," giving GE shares their biggest one-day percentage boost in 21 months.
GE closed up 2.8 percent at $33.59, its best one-day gain since January 2004.
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