Countering Boyd: PCBs stand in way of region's economy

Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)

January 30, 2001
Section: Opinion
Edition: Schenectady Albany; Final
Page: B-10
Column: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PCBs stand in way of region's economy
JOHN KAUFMANN
I find myself in uneasy agreement with much of Gordon Boyd's Jan. 14 column, questioning the Environmental Protection Agency plan for the Hudson River. He accurately notes that their plan will only partially remediate the PCB problem and that it will take decades to reduce the level of PCBs in fish. Unfortunately, rather than advocate that EPA take a more aggressive and comprehensive approach, he argues that they should do nothing.

More troubling is the fact that Mr. Boyd carefully ignores the broader implications of contamination in order to make his argument against dredging. He appears not a wit concerned that doing nothing will leave the area as the largest toxic dumpsite in the United States. The contamination of the fish is just a symptom of the underlying problem. Without a cleanup, this region is doomed to economic stagnation while the remnants of its poison slowly wend their way downstream to add to the global problem of PCBs.
Mr. Boyd has often complained about how environmentalists have stymied the development of jobs and the economy in this region. It is inexplicable that in this case, where the economic impact is simply massive, he chooses to ignore it. The state spent a fortune developing a marina in Fort Edward whose use is marginal since the boats that should be using it cannot reach it. They cannot reach it because the river has become largely unnavigable. It is unnavigable because dredging would result in destabilizing the bottom and flow of the river, which would in turn lead to a release of PCBs.
More fundamentally, what sane corporation would spend serious money to build a facility in an area that is identified as a Superfund toxic site? Without a cleanup, the area is doomed to backwardness and stagnation.
On some level, I am looking forward to the next time someone like Paul Lilac, the supervisor of Stillwater who appeared on a commercial for GE, whines about the fact that there are no jobs for people in his area. My answer is that when community activists were insisting on forcing GE to clean up the mess that is stifling development in your region, local individuals such as yourself and Gordon Boyd were doing everything possible to make sure that the area remained just as it is: with its boarded-up buildings and high unemployment rates.
JOHN KAUFMANN
Saratoga Springs

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