Hudson River PCBs
Serving New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Seven Tribal Nations.
Maps, Photographs and Videos
Below you will find media, including maps, images and videos, relating to Hudson River PCBs and the ongoing dredging project. Please click on the links below to visit the respective sections.
Maps
All maps are in pdf format. To view, you will need the free Adobe Reader. 
This map shows the entire 200-mile Hudson River Superfund site.
The 40-mile Upper Hudson portion of the Superfund site is divided into three sections that start at the former Fort Edward Dam and end at the Federal Dam at Troy, NY. Right now, dredging on the Hudson is in Phase 1, which is being conducted in two parts of Section 1 (the northern portion of the Thompson Island Pool and the east channel of Griffin Island). Later dredging will occur throughout parts of Sections 1, 2, and 3.
This diagram depicts how people and animals are exposed to contaminants in three zones along the Hudson River: upstream areas, the Upper Hudson, and the Lower Hudson.
Photographs
To view full-size versions of the images, please click on the thumbnail.
Archaeology
When historic items are discovered during the dredging process, archaeologists and divers evaluate the remains. These pictures show the remains of a late-18th or early-19th century boat submerged in the eastern channel of Rogers Island. Divers used a small hydraulic dredge (similar to a vacuum) to further expose the vessel and documented it using photos and video before it was exhumed in pieces. Archaeologists have found at least 10 sunken vessels during the first phase of the project.
Dredging
Workers are using excavators with environmental clamshell buckets mounted on flat, anchored barges to dredge the river. Sediments are emptied into a 35-foot-wide, 195-foot-long floating steel box called a “hopper barge,†18 of which are employed for the project. Tugboats move the barges to an upstream processing facility. The barges may make as many as 20 one-way trips to and from the processing facility during a 24-hour period.
Facility
Once the PCB-laden dirt and debris are removed from the river, they are taken to this processing facility in Fort Edward. Larger materials like wood and rocks are separated out, and the rest of the sediment is processed into a “filter cake,†which is placed inside lined railcars and taken to a disposal facility in Andrews, Texas. The facility is a 1,338-acre hazardous and radioative waste processing and disposal facility next to the border with New Mexico. There, the waste is deposited into cells that are buried in the ground and surrounded by clay. The facility is permitted under the Toxic Substances Control Act to accept PCB-containing waste.
Monitoring
Quality of Life Performance Standards were designed for the dredging project to keep the impacts on people to a minimum. The project's lighting, noise, odor and effect on river navigation are closely monitored, as well as its effect on air and water quality. Air and noise monitors have been placed around all of the dredge operations and in residential and commercial areas. Water monitoring is done around the dredges and downriver of them, to determine PCB resuspension levels.
