Critics: Burial Site For Hudson PCBs Is Inadequate

Another aquifer, the Santa Rosa, is near the site. People don't drink the Santa Rosa's brackish water, but it is used to water livestock, which could transfer PCBs to the human food chain in the event of a leak, Lewis said.

GE ship the PCB-laden river silt to the Texas site by train. It plans to complete transport of material from the cleanup's first phase by November. To date, GE has spent $629 million to clean up the river.

Neil Carman, an official with the Sierra Club in Texas, says the Environmental Protection Agency is letting GE use the "cheapest option" by not requiring it to neutralize the PCBs at a treatment facility it built near the dredging operation.

"There's no cleanup. It's just gone from the Hudson River," Carman said. He called Waste Control a "cheap pay toilet ... the cheapest GE could find," and said burying the dirt is only leaving a toxic mess for future generations.

In an April 21 letter to the Sierra Club, the EPA said it considered "feasible" treatment technologies GE could have used, but that the cost was "substantially more" than disposing of the chemical in an offsite location.