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It was the plants like GE that did the most damage to the Hudson, and though GE wasn't the only one, it is the easiest to focus on, as it belligerently dumped hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of pounds of PCB's into the Hudson from its General Electric plants at Fort Edward and Hudson Falls. From 1947 to 1977, these two plants legally discharged from 500,000 to 1.5 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson, and unknowingly saturated the bedrock beneath both sites with at least that much again. Pure PCBs are oozing out of the bedrock to this day, constantly recontaminating the river on a daily basis. Over 300,000 pounds remain concentrated in bottom sediments of the river today. The spread of PCBs throughout the Hudson River and the food chain, which it supports, has created one of the most extensive hazardous waste problems in the nation.
After seeing all of this it leaves one to wonder - What is a PCB? How do PCB's affect humans, the wildlife? PCB's are a class of chemicals formerly titled as polychlorinated biphenyls. Polychlorinated biphenyls are manufactured completely by man , and do not occur in nature. The first instance of a PCB being manufactured and used was in 1929 by a company named Monsanto, who was their sole U.S. manufacturer. They were used in many different types of products including hydraulic fluid, casting wax, pigments, carbonless copy paper, plasticizer, vacuum pumps, compressors, heat transfer systems and others. Their primary use, however, was as a dielectric fluid in electrical equipment. Because of their stability and resistance to thermal breakdown as well as their insulating properties they were the fluid of choice for transformers and capacitors. As a matter of fact, because of their fire resistance, they were required by law for some fire codes. Like many other manmade chemicals, PCB's arent suseptable to breakdown, they can sit for years and remain just as toxic.
