Tell the EPA: Make Hudson River’s Shoreline Healthy Too!

Dear [EPA Official],

I live in [your city], [your state], and am writing because I have concerns about the cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River Valley. While efforts focus on dredging PCB “hot spots” on the Hudson’s bottom, there are no plans to remove these highly toxic chemicals from the surrounding river floodplain. This means that after the PCBs are removed from the river, a serious health and environmental threat will remain.

Each time the Hudson River floods, PCB-contaminated sediment washes ashore, posing a grave risk to health through skin contact, inhalation and ingestion. PCBs have harmful effects on the neurological, hormonal and reproductive systems of humans and animals at very low levels.

Recent studies by the EPA and General Electric have revealed that PCB contamination in the upper Hudson River floodplain is as much as 1,000 times higher than state cleanup standards. When releasing GE’s data last month, the EPA acknowledged that floodplain soil contamination might be worse than its own earlier studies indicated.

[Your comment]

I urge the EPA to immediately order GE to clean up the floodplain contamination already identified and to conduct an expanded floodplain analysis of the entire 40-mile stretch of the Hudson River PCB Superfund Site to determine what other floodplain areas pose a threat to people and wildlife and are in need of remediation.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]