We must act on restoring the Hudson River 

The Hudson River has long been a vital artery for trade, transportation, and tourism in the northeast. Indigenous people relied on the river and lived along its banks. Later in the 17th century, European explorers navigated the river and established settlements and trading posts along its shores. Over time, the Hudson grew to become a major hub of commerce and industry, with major cities rising up along its banks. 

While the Hudson River remains one of the most critical economic and culturally significant waterways in the world, in recent history, the river has developed an unfortunate reputation for being badly damaged by Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a form of toxic waste, stemming from our industrial past. 

For those of us fortunate to call the Hudson Valley home, we face the massive and daunting challenge of restoring the Hudson River. This irreplaceable resource supports abundant wildlife, offers outstanding recreational opportunities, and underpins our communities’ economic vitality.  

As representatives of the Hudson Valley, we have repeatedly united to call for the aggressive dredging of the river to remove the massive volume of PCBs carelessly dumped into it for decades by the General Electric Company (GE). Nearly four years ago, while serving as county executives representing riverfront communities, we came together to fight the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to deem GE’s partial cleanup complete.

Now, as members of Congress who represent the Hudson Valley, we are once again calling for a comprehensive cleanup and restoration effort that will make the Hudson River safe for people and wildlife.  

In our shared engagement, we remain sobered by the staggering levels of contamination that compelled the EPA to declare a 200-mile stretch of the Hudson a national Superfund site. This designation is reserved for the most serious and complex instances of contamination, those requiring the full weight and engagement of the federal government to compel polluters to restore these incredibly compromised sites to a level deemed “protective of public health and the environment.”

In our new roles and, notably, as members of different political parties, we continue our tradition of working together in the best interests of the communities we serve. Irrespective of the partisan differences dividing the nation, we have purposefully rededicated ourselves to the full removal of PCBs from the Hudson.

Foremost in our minds is the health and well-being of families who continue being negligently impacted by the contamination. We find ourselves witness to an incomprehensible environmental tragedy. The most disadvantaged pay the largest price for GE’s ignorant and reckless actions, these poisons accumulating in their bodies as they ingest contaminated fish to survive. If we are truly dedicated to lifting up those who suffer from economic and other challenges, we cannot allow this to stand. 

The EPA has a unique opportunity to make good on its stated mission by acknowledging that the cleanup performed to date fails to meet the basic legal and moral test of protecting public health and the environment. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and state Attorney General Letitia James (D), working with federal trustee agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice, must negotiate a comprehensive settlement with GE to clean and restore the river. Liability for Natural Resource Damages alone has been estimated at $11 billion. This amount is comparable to the Natural Resource Damages (NRD) settlement following the 2016 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, though the contamination in the Hudson is far more toxic and has lasted many decades longer.

The Hudson River must be cleaned to a level that ensures the health and safety of people and wildlife. A global settlement of GE’s cleanup and NRD liabilities will ensure that the communities we represent will fully enjoy the river’s bounty within the current generation’s lifetime. 

Now is the time to act.

Marcus Molinaro represents the 19th District of New York and Pat Ryan represents the 18th District of New York.