Court Rules on Superfund Liability; GE Dredges the Hudson River as Superfund Remedy

Superfund is a federal program that requires companies to clean up pollution long after it was created, and often imposes liability on companies that merely bought the offending polluter, or who created the pollution at a time when the waste disposal was lawful, standard industry practice. This story from the New York Times reports on a recent US Supreme Court decision that tightens the criteria for holding a company liable under Superfund.

This story from the New York Times is about the dredging of the Hudson to remove PCBs, which has been a huge fight between GE and EPA for years. The PCBs were disposed years ago, lawfully, by discharging them into the Hudson River. EPA wanted GE to dredge the River to remove those that are still there, and GE resisted, saying the dredging was not the best way to deal with the problem. It is a classic example of the extensive legal battles and expensive clean ups that can result from the Superfund program.

I am not familiar with the remedy in this case, so I have no reason to believe that the dredging is not useful. However, one wonders whether it's a good idea to disturb PCBs in the sediment by dredging them, rather than leaving them in place. There are cases, like some asbestos removal, where the cure is worse than the disease.