A federal Court of Appeals has affirmed that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to order cleanups by responsible parties at federal Superfund sites.
The decision reinforces the EPA”™s ability to force General Electric to continue cleaning the Hudson River Superfund site, and which could potentially force cleanup of dozens of GE-connected Superfund sites nationally.
Under the Superfund law, the EPA has four options when it determines a cleanup is necessary: negotiate a settlement with the responsible party; do the cleanup and then sue for reimbursement; file an abatement action in federal court to compel the company to do the cleanup; or issue a “unilateral administrative order” forcing the company to do the cleanup. The last option was being challenged in the GE lawsuit.
GE has received at least 68 unilateral administrative orders over the years, according to the court, and is currently involved in 79 cleanup actions where such orders may be issued, including the Hudson River Superfund site. While the EPA hasn’t issued GE a unilateral administrative order for the Hudson River, it has reserved the right to do so.
In 2000, GE ended its long-running battle with the EPA and began dredging PCB-laden sediment from the Hudson River. The company dumped about 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the river from the end of World War II to 1977, when the practice was banned by the U.S. government. The Upper Hudson was subsequently declared a Superfund site, and GE fought the EPA over the responsibility for cleaning it up.
That Superfund cleanup is expected to cost at least $750 million, but the real impact of the decision could be played out nationally, as the court has now affirmed EPA”™s ability to order General Electric and other corporations to clean Superfund sites for which they are held responsible.
General Electric press officer Peter O”™Toole did not return a call seeking comment.
“This is not just about GE, this is about all corporations that are responsible parties at Superfund sites across the country,” said Ned Sullivan, the president of Scenic Hudson, and a former deputy commissioner in charge of cleaning up hazardous waste sites in New York for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. “It”™s important for the Hudson Valley and it”™s also important for the entire country. It”™s critical the EPA has the authority to order cleanups.”
And Sullivan pointed out the efficacy of the Superfund program is evident at Foundry Cove along the Hudson River in Cold Spring. Marathon Battery, the responsible party, remediated the toxins and replanted wetland species there, and the site is now a thriving cove and marsh that Scenic Hudson purchased and is converting into a park.
