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- In the 1980s, EPA
designated a 200 mile stretch

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of the Hudson River as
the nation's largest

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Superfund hazardous waste site.

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Superfund is the nation's
environmental law that deals

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with the cleanup of toxic
hazardous contamination

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from historic pollution.

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The Hudson River is one

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of the largest Superfund
sites in the country,

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and one of the most important
because of the thousands

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and millions of people that are affected

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by potential exposure to PCBs
from fish in the Hudson River,

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PCBs are a highly toxic chemical.

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They've been identified
by EPA as a probable cause

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of cancer in humans,

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and they've also been
linked to illnesses such

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as thyroid disease, immune disorders,

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reproductive disorders, low IQ, and,

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and other adverse health
effects on humans.

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General Electric dumped 1.3 million pounds

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of PCBs into the Hudson River from 1947

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through the 1970s when PCBs
were banned by Congress.

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- The fishing from,
from Troy all the way up

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to here in Fort Edward.

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The health department
has, has regulated saying

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that you cannot keep the fish.

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You can catch 'em and you can release 'em,

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but you can't keep the fish,

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nor can you eat any of
the fish that you have due

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to the PCB contamination.

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Right now. One of the
objectives of the dredging is

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to get those fish levels down to the point

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where you can start eating the fish again.

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In fact, that really is the
main source of risk exposure

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that we, we have on the project,

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and that's what the
project was designed to do,

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is reduce the levels in the fish.

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- NRDC has been involved
since the 1970s in working

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towards this cleanup.

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It's now underway.

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We've used all the tools in
our toolbox from litigation

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to citizen advocacy to hard science.

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- EPA oversees the
general electric company

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who is actually doing the, the
dredging work in the river.

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So our role is to be there,
inspect the work, make sure

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that it's going according to
the plants and specifications,

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and that they're actually
meeting the, the standards,

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engineering standards that
were set for the project.

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GEs role is to actually implement the,

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the work itself to do the project.

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They designed it. We reviewed
and approved the design,

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and they now have their
contractors actually doing

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the physical work in the field.

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- The law in the US is polluter pays.

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That means GE made a mess

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and they're responsible to clean it up.

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But for decades, GE spent tens of billions

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of dollars on lawyers,
lobbyists, scientists, pr people

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to convince the public,
seeking to convince the public

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that a cleanup would
only make things worse.

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- Gee tried to make the argument that,

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that you would get sufficient
resus suspension to make it,

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to negate some of the, the
positive aspects of the work.

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But what we're finding is that
we, we don't see that level

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of Resus suspension that becomes an issue.

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The second phase of the project,
which is what we're in now,

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contains a lot of changes in
the approach that we're taking,

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and we find the Resus suspension
numbers are much lower than

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they were in the first phase,
which was done in 2009.

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- Initially, GE argued the PCBs weren't

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harmful to people at all.

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Then GE argued that the
river was cleaning itself.

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When the data clearly
showed this wasn't true,

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GE shifted ground

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and argued that an attempt

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to clean up the river would
only make things worse

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by spreading around the contamination,

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by bringing independent science to bear.

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And RDC was able to refute

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and show the errors of those assertions.

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NRDC was able to support
in an informed way,

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a strong comprehensive cleanup,

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which ultimately the
government has required in this

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case and is now underway.

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- Phase one of the
project was the first year

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of the project, and the
purpose of that was to look at

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the design itself, see how
the equipment is operating,

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are we getting the
production that we needed?

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Are we meeting the engineering standards

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that was associated with the design?

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And then after phase one,
we had a peer review panel

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that was put together to
take a look at the data we

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collected so

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that we can make adjustments
necessary for phase two.

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And phase two is the remainder
of the entire project.

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We expect that to take anywhere from five

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to seven years to complete.

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As far as the dredging,
what we do is we identify

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where the hotspots are, that's

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where the PCBs are the
the most concentrated,

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and the dredging contractor
is, is told where to do

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that and what depth.

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He then removes that.

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We go back and we re-sample it

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and see if, if it is all gone.

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If it isn't, we go back one more time

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and they're only allowed to do that twice.

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And from there we
backfill it if it's clean

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or we put a cap, which
basically just covers it

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and holds it in place so

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that it's not coming back
into the environment,

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we will be dredging through
the next five to seven seasons.

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And of course, the dredge season
is coincident with the time

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that the Champlain canal is
open since we need the Champlain

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canal as part of the work.

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So that means that our, our year

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that we can actually dredge
goes from roughly the 1st of May

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till the end of October.

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So we're working 24 hours a
day, six days a week in order

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to make up for time that we
don't have access to the canal.

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Thanks, Larry. How you doing?

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- Boom.
- That's unloading the barge

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and it'll either put it in a,

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a directly into a truck if it's dry enough

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or put it through the, the
size separation system.

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The trauma system. What he's
doing now is he's loading

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up a hopper.

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Underneath that hopper
is a wobbler system,

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and what that does is it processes the,

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the material and anything four inches

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or larger is kicked out, and
that's taken away separately.

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And the rest then goes up into the trauma.

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The trauma is the blue and
yellow piece of equipment.

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You can see that rotating inside.

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That's a, it's just a, a cylinder

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that has five eighth inch diameter holes.

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So anything smaller than
five ace drops through it.

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Anything larger than five ace goes

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to the conveyor that's behind it.

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And all of that material
goes out on the conveyors

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and is taken by, by truck
up to the storage area

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where it's then loaded onto rail carts.

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The sludge is then pumped up to the, up

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to the filter presses.

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We have 12 filter presses

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and that squeezes the water
out of the, the slurry

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water goes to the treatment facility

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and the slurry gets staged
for loading onto the rail.

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Now, bucket he's using
is a five yard bucket

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with a level cut, so he
can actually get right down

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to the bottom of the barge and,

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and do a good, good cleanup on the barge.

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Once, once we're done with the dredging

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the following season, we
come back in, in the spring

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and do habitat replanting.

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What we do is we actually
replant a portion of the area

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that was dredged so that
that becomes seed plants

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to expand that weed bed again.

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That, that we removed during the dredging.

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The reason we put the plants back is

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to reestablish the ecosystem

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that was there before the dredging.

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I mean, this is, this is
the start of the food chain.

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The, the plants provide
cover for the fish to spawn.

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They provide food stock for the fish

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and other aquatic animals.

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So it's, it's important
to make sure that we get,

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get the habitat reestablished

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to give it a a boost, if you will.

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It will come back on its own,

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but this way it comes back much quicker.

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- The start of phase two

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of the cleanup in 2011 marks the beginning

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of the end of a long saga.

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It brings us closer

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to the day when the Hudson
River will be restored,

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when fish will be safe to eat,

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when communities along
the river will be able

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to enjoy its bounty, we'll
be able to enjoy recreation,

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commerce in safety

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and health without fear of

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poison and pollution.

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From the legacy of PCBs,
there's still a lot

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of hard work left to get the job done.

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So it's important to
remember where we've been

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and the challenges that still lie ahead.

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Continued vigilance by EPA

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and by the public will
be crucial to ensure

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that General Electric completes the job

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and completes it right.