For over thirty years the Hudson River in New York State was polluted by General Electric, an electric company that had two factories along the Hudson. This was a situation that hit home for many people who had built their lives around this river. The local citizens wanted to put up a fight but couldn’t do it alone. The help of the government and having an organized group was very important. This topic has been looked at by many scholars, newspaper columnists and scientist. All of these people cover valid points about the dumping, how it occurred and what happened to the river. This paper will go into detail on the government and how they stepped into this hazardous situation and why they took the actions they did. This paper will argue that the Environmental Protection Agency used dredging as the preferred remedy for the cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River. It will focus on how the EPA arrived at their decision and how General Electric impacted the resolution. It has been studied since 1977 what the best solution would be for the polluted River. This paper will look into how the EPA arrived at their decision, who it effected and the altercations they met along the way. It will also examine why it took such an extended period of time for the Environmental Protection Agency to create a plan of action and their reasoning behind that.
The pollution of the Hudson River has been examined by many government agencies, such as the EPA, scholars, as well as the local citizens that made their home around the Hudson River. There have been years of debate between General Electric, the Environmental Protection Agency and the local citizens on what was thought to be the safest for the environment and the local families as well as the most economically wise choice for the cleanup of the river. Due to the fact that General Electric had been polluting the water with polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, and harming the environment surrounding their factories, GE had been...