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Return to Welcome to Dick's Guides or President Clinton's Appointee's Screw America
Clinton's EPA appointee Carol Brownell allows General Electric to delay cleaning up their PCB pollution in the Hudson River
In March 1998, the federal government announced a 16-month delay in its deadline for the General Electric Co. and others to come up with a plan to clean up PCB-contaminated sediments from the Hudson River. Environmentalists and some public officials said the government was `caving in' to pressure from GE the , which will help pay for the clean up. U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., wrote to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner on Monday complaining that ``delay, delay, delay: that's all we've been getting from the EPA when it comes to cleaning up the Hudson.'' The EPA claimed they and GE had been so slow in doing what should be dome that extra time was needed so GE can fix water quality tests they performed in the Hudson. The plan was postponed to December 2000, when six months of public hearings would be followed by a final decision in June 2001. No one could say when the actual work would begin to clean up the PCBs, (polychlorinated bipheyls) which were used in heavy electrical equipment and other industrial applications until they were banned by the federal government in 1977. They have been linked to cancer in laboratory animals. Apparently the Clinton EPA wants to see a few humans killed, or a few more children born with birth defects. PCBs released by GE from its facilities on the Hudson north of Albany have been primarily blamed for the river's contamination. Dick Stapleton, an EPA spokesman in New York City, said the peer review requirement stems from a new directive two weeks ago by the agency's Clinton dominated headquarters in Washington. `"This is not a Hudson River decision, it's an agency decision that affects all kinds of projects,'' he warned. Apparently Clinton must be raising lots of money from industrial polluters makimg "investments in good government." GE spokesman David Warshaw wanted still more time that 2001. JHe was actually quoted as saying, "We see no validity of an aribtrary deadline ... The public has to have confidence that a significant data is generated, that it will be considered in making such a momontous decision.'' If dredging the contaminated sediments is the EPA's recommended solution, it would cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. It seems clear why GE sees the continuation of PCB poisoning of the Hudson tolerable. Cara Lee of Scenic Hudson said the timetable change is ``unacceptable. We feel it is due to EPA's caving to GE's pressure." Carol, of course, in my humble opinion, is wrong. Bill Clinton is an equal opportunity money grubber. For enough money his political appointees would allow all Americans to be poisoned. By the same token, If Cara Lee were just to give enough -- if she could simply outspend the polluters, Clinton's appointees would speed up the cleaning of the Hudson.
Fact Source, JOEL STASHENKO, ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)
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