Conflicting jargon and scientific reports: What Hudson residents believe

By Justin Bergman, Associated Press writer Copyright 198 Associated Press December 13, 1998

With a sudden jerk and rapid reel, Bob Melloy brings his catch toward the bank of the Hudson River.

He groans, then chuckles in embarrassment when the fish finally pops out of the water. The bass is no bigger than his hand.

Melloy throws the fish back. But, had the bass been bigger, the elderly fisherman says he wouldn't have hesitated to fry it up for dinner. Even if it was laden with PCBs - pollutants the Environmental Protection Agency says cause cancer in lab rats.

"I've been eating fish out of the river for three years," Melloy says, casting out again in the small riverside town of Athens. "And I've never gotten sick ... I understand (the river) is pretty cleaned up now."

That's according to who one believes. In the ongoing tug of war between the EPA and General Electric, whose plants north of Albany are mostly to blame for PCB pollution in the Hudson, it seems the people who live on the shady banks of this historic river are stuck somewhere in the middle. And the technical jargon and conflicting scientific reports have many confused.

GE, which released a million pounds of the polychlorinated biphenyls into the river until they were made illegal in 1977, has argued for years that the river is healthy again. The company even released publications in towns along the river this summer touting the return of wildlife and the safety of swimming.

But the EPA says much work remains to be done in the Hudson, especially in light of the $ 150 million deal GE struck with the EPA in September to remove PCBs from the polluted Housatonic River in western Massachusetts. According to a report the agency released in July, the levels of PCBs escaping from silt on the Hudson's bed and floating downstream are just as bad as in the Housatonic, if not worse.

The numbers are so bad in some spots - the river's "hot spots" - EPA says it may dredge the Hudson before the decade is out.

GE hasn't decided how it will clean up the Housatonic, but dredging has been a controversial option for years because of the perceived negative environmental impacts.

For many of those who boat and fish in the water, though, the mere mention of the word 'dredging' is warning enough.

"I don't boat here very often," says Troy resident Kirk Durivage as he hitches a boat to his car at an Albany dock after a morning jaunt. "I usually go up north where I know it's a lot cleaner."

Durivage's assessment: Despite years of working to clean up the river, the Hudson is still very much polluted. And GE is giving Hudson valley residents the runaround.

"If I do something wrong, I feel I should have to pay for it," he reasons.

Ray Tonns, a New York City native who spent the summer in Coxsackie, says he sees kids swimming in the river all the time, but hasn't ventured in himself.

"It's just not appetizing knowing this stuff is around," Tonns says of the PCB remnants. "To say these things aren't dangerous - you've got to be crazy."

But just up the river at the Albany Yacht Club in Rensselaer, a lifelong resident of the Hudson valley takes an opposing viewpoint.

According to Tom McDonald of nearby Menands, the EPA should "leave a sleeping dog lie" and save taxpayers' money.

"The river's in better shape ecologically than it has been in my entire lifetime," the 38-year club member says as he lounges and chats with friends on a porch overlooking the river. "Fifteen years ago, you could see dead fish floating on the water. Now we have crabs here we've never had before."

While the EPA agrees that pollution is at its lowest level in years, due to better controls on chemical and sewage dumping, it's the things that can't be seen with the naked eye concerning them most.

PCBs, which were used as insulating material in transformers and other electrical equipment, have been linked to cancer in animals in laboratory tests. EPA officials say the contaminants are carcinogenic to humans, as well, but scientific evidence on the theory is inconclusive.

GE has commissioned its own studies to show PCBs are harmless.

Nonetheless, the PCB controversy has tainted the river for more than just casual outdoor enthusiasts. It's also virtually decimated the commercial fishing business on the lower Hudson.

Thirty years ago when Everett Nack started fishing on the river, there were close to 500 similar commercial outlets trolling the waters in pursuit of shad, carp, catfish, sturgeon, striped bass, eels and yellow perch.

Today the number ranges from 25 to 30, Nack says.

The reason for such a steep decline in what once was a $ 40 million a year industry?

Shad is the only fish the state health department allows commercial fishermen to sell today. Most of the other fish are considered unsafe for human consumption because they contain too many PCBs.

Shad generally have lower levels of PCBs than other fish.

While he's still in business, Nack says it isn't always easy. He estimates he loses between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000 a year from not being able to sell eels. Thousands more were lost when striped bass, carp and catfish were deemed unsafe in the 1970s.

"There's not much incentive for a young guy to go out and learn the business when you can't even sell the fish," the Claverack fisherman says.

There is hope for the future, Nack says, but only if GE takes the initiative to dredge the remaining PCBs in the upper Hudson now. He says the health department is considering taking striped bass off the danger list in two years.

"But if the PCBs float down here, it would destroy it all," he adds. "If they don't dredge, (the PCBs) will be down to the estuary. If it comes down here, it will be spread so thin, you won't be able to get it."

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