[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 93 (Friday, June 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1284-E1285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PCBS IN THE HUDSON RIVER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MAURICE D. HINCHEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2001

  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend to my colleagues 
the following article written by Ned Sullivan on the issue of

[[Page E1285]]

PCB contamination in the Hudson River of New York. Ned is the highly 
respected executive director of Scenic Hudson, Inc., a 37 year-old 
nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to protecting and 
enhancing the scenic, natural, historic, agricultural and recreational 
treasures of the Hudson River and its valley. Ned and I have worked 
together for many years in pursuit of removing sediment contaminated by 
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the ``hot spots'' in the upper 
Hudson River, in order to reduce threats to public health, revive local 
economies, reopen recreational opportunities along the river. I 
appreciate Ned's thoughtful analysis of this important issue.

       PCBs Pose Major Health Threat to New York City, and Beyond

                           (By Ned Sullivan)

       For decades masses of the invisible, virtually 
     indestructible cancer-causing PCBs that General Electric 
     dumped from its factories on the Upper Hudson have moved down 
     the majestic river, reaching dangerous levels in New York 
     Harbor. They are still coming, clinging fiercely to the 
     river's shifting silt, threatening the health of millions.
       There is no question that GE has the responsibility for 
     cleaning up the worst of them at their source, as the U.S. 
     Environmental Protection Agency has ruled after years of 
     intensive study. In doing so the EPA employed methodologies 
     endorsed by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and worldwide 
     peer review.
       GE has mounted a massive advertising and public relations 
     effort aimed at reversing the EPA's decision. It has a force 
     of seventeen high-powered lobbyists hard at work on the 
     matter in Washington. For good measure the company's legal 
     battalions have challenged provisions of the U.S. Superfund 
     cleanup laws as unconstitutional.

               However these are the facts of the matter:

       According to the EPA, the Agency for Toxic Substances and 
     Disease Registry (U.S. Public Health Service) and the World 
     Health Organization among others, PCBs are ``an acute and 
     chronic health hazard.'' Humans exposed to the lethal 
     substances are subject to skin, liver and brain cancers; 
     respiratory impairments; severe acne-like skin rashes; 
     impaired immune systems, adult reproductive system damage, 
     and perhaps worst of all neurological defects and 
     developmental disorders in the children of exposed females.
       David Carpenter, the highly respected former dean of the 
     School of Public Health at SUNY/Albany, has stated: ``Our 
     understanding of hazards from PCBs is growing much more 
     rapidly than PCB levels are declining. So over time, the net 
     reason for concern has only gotten greater, not less. Any 
     time you decrease the IQ of your next generation, that's the 
     ultimate pollution.''
       The PCBs enter the food chain through fish and move upward 
     rapidly through animals and humans. EPA health risk 
     assessments reveal that humans eating just one meal of fish 
     from the Hudson River per week are one thousand times more 
     susceptible to cancer. The risk of other deleterious effects 
     also increases significantly. The New York State Department 
     of Health advises women of childbearing age and children 
     under age 15 not to eat any fish from anywhere in the Hudson.
       Unfortunately large numbers of people, including the 
     underprivileged who fish for subsistence and not sport; 
     ethnic groups whose cultures embrace fishing, and even 
     upscale sportspersons whose enjoyment includes cooking the 
     catch, continue to eat Hudson fish in quantity despite the 
     warning signs posted up and down the river.
       PCBs build up in the environment, the technical word is 
     bioaccumulate, becoming more concentrated as they move up the 
     food chain to the human level. Less than a month ago, 
     scientists retained by the New York State Department of 
     Environmental Conservation (DEC) released new evidence that 
     the PCBs have been moving from the river's bottom onto land, 
     where they are contaminating soil and animals along the 
     banks, and in residential back yards.
       This stands in sharp contrast to the advertising campaign 
     GE has been waging on the upper Hudson, showing abundant, 
     flourishing wildlife flying over and splashing in a sparkling 
     river.
       The public has not been taken in by GE's massive 
     disinformation campaign. A statistically valid (plus or minus 
     3.5 percent) Marist College poll sponsored by Scenic Hudson 
     reveals that 84 percent of those interviewed said the river 
     should be cleaned up. That qualifies as a landslide.
       There is no question that the Hudson must be cleaned up. 
     Scenic Hudson has interviewed senior representatives from 
     more than two dozen scientific, academic, governmental and 
     environmental institutions and found every one of them in 
     favor of a cleanup. GE stands alone in insisting that science 
     is on its side.
       It is high time General Electric honored its obligations to 
     the public.