General Electric's (GE) Hudson River contamination case took an interesting turn last week when the Justice Department called for the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the company. The lawsuit claims the Superfund toxic-waste-cleanup law grants Federal regulators unrestrained power to order environmental cleanups.
GE released over 1 million pounds of PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, into the Hudson River between 1940 and 1977. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invoked the Superfund law in the fall of 2000, ordering GE to pay a projected $460 million to dredge a forty-mile stretch of the Hudson north of Albany.
PCBs can cause irritation of the nose and throat, acne, and rashes. In addition, the EPA lists PCBs as possible carcinogens.