This month, dredging PCBs from the Hudson River began south of the village of Fort Edward, and it will continue approximately three miles downriver through the area of Griffin Island. The goal is to remove 350,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment this year.

EPA Region 2 Director Judith Enck announced the start of the third year of dredging in Troy.This week, Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Judith Enck joined U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Deputy Commissioner Eugene Leff and Troy Mayor Lou Rosamilia on the banks of the Hudson River to mark the third season of dredging to remove PCB-contaminated sediment from a 40-mile stretch of the river between Fort Edward and Troy.

The officials also toured two onshore Superfund sites that are contributing other toxins to the Hudson River. Their first stop, in Troy, was once home to a junkyard and auto repair shops. A former manufactured gas production facility located nearby also used a right-of-way area adjacent to the scrap yard as disposal location for its purifier waste. Both areas are being cleaned up through New York State's Superfund program under a consent order between the New York State DEC and the responsible party, National Grid. Additionally, Troy has received a $1 million grant from the New York Department of State to construct a boat launch and restore a portion of the site.

The second stop on the officials' tour was the location of an industrial oven used to recover mercury from batteries, thermometers, pressure regulators and dental amalgams. Mercury Refining Co. sold the recovered metal between from the mid 1950s to 1998. Prior to 1980, Mercury Refining disposed of waste contaminated with mercury over an embankment between an old process building and the railroad tracks to the south of the property, and mercury-contaminated rainwater drained off the site into the tributary of a creek.