Dredging of the Hudson River will resume at noon today, according to the EPA, after several days of tests showed that the river’s PCB levels had once again fallen under federal safety thresholds.
Testing on Saturday and Sunday showed levels of 206 and 111 parts per trillion, respectively, below the 500 ppt threshold.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, today’s dredging operations will be confined to three locations and samples will be drawn today and Wednesday. If they come back below 350 ppt, the dredging will expand.
Dredging was halted twice last week because of a fast moving river and heightened PCB levels. It was the first time during the project, started in May, that PCB levels had breached the federal threshold.
The spikes were registered at the Thompson Island Dam testing site, which near Fort Edward, where dredging operations are centered. If this summer’s dredging is successful, the project will be expanded downriver for a much larger operation.
General Electric is being directed to dredge PCBs, thought to be a carcinogen, out of the Hudson by the federal government. The company dumped the chemicals into the river for three decades.
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