Responsiveness Summary Hudson River PCBs Site Record of Decision
Appendix A - 1
APPENDIX AHUDSON RIVER PCBs SUPERFUND SITENEW YORKPRELIMINARY WETLANDS ASSESSMENT
The sediments and water in the Hudson River are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) from discharges originating from two General Electric Company (GE) capacitormanufacturing plants. The Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site extends nearly 200 river milesfrom Hudson Falls to the Battery in New York City. Many PCBs remain concentrated in
hot spots
in the sediments of the Upper Hudson River portion of the site, an approximately 40-milereach of the river from Hudson Falls to Troy that traverses Washington, Saratoga, Albany, andRensselaer Counties. The selected remedy involves sediment of the Upper Hudson River and thisportion of the river is the focus of this assessment.Both federal and state freshwater wetlands exist throughout the Upper Hudson region. Areasadjacent to the Upper Hudson River include forested shoreline wetlands, transitional uplands,and vegetated backwaters (emergent marsh and scrub-shrub wetlands). The National WetlandsInventory (NWI) maps and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation(NYSDEC) freshwater wetlands maps delimit the wetlands along the Upper Hudson River. Also,mapping prepared for GE depicts the locations of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in thesubject reach.
Description of the Selected Remedy
The remedial action objectives (RAOs) established for the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Siteare to:
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Reduce the cancer risks and non-cancer health hazards for people eating fish fromthe Hudson River by reducing the concentration of PCBs in fish.
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Reduce the risks to ecological receptors by reducing the concentration of PCBs infish.
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Reduce PCB levels in sediments to reduce concentrations in river (surface) waterthat are above applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements (ARARs).
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Reduce the inventory (mass) of PCBs in sediments that are or may bebioavailable.
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Minimize the long-term downstream transport of PCBs in the river.Because certain wetlands and SAV communities along the Upper Hudson are contaminated byPCBs, they must be included in the areas to be dredged. There is no practicable alternative thatexists other than remediation of those wetlands and SAV communities.As documented in the Record of Decision for the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site, the majorcomponents of the selected remedy comprise the following:
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