Document ZJLK6xnEK6rNG5nqqqB84oVwL

* . iuala iwanAL PCB Fight in Final Round I ALBANY (AP) - The General Electric Co. and the Environ mental Conservation Department are squared off for the final round of the PCB battle. ,. The department wants GE to stop dumping the Industrial chemical polychlorinated biphenyls into the Hudson River and to pay for cleaning up some of the damaee already done. Negotiations between the two aides aimed at a compromise agreement on a reduced level of dumping have proved fruitless so far, reportedly because of the department's desire to extract a penalty from GE. A new chase of departmental bearings began here Monday that could lead to an order requiring GE to pay that penalty. Testimony Monday focused on a GE proposal for a water treatment plant to screen PCBs from the discharges at its electric capacitor plants at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, and on the Hudson River orgsnisms which have Ingested PCBpolluted particles. EnCon Engineer Lawrence Nadler testified that a carbon TlUratlon process designed for the General Electric plants could reduce dally PCB discharges to about one gram, or 1- Mth of an ounce, dally. GE la presently releasing about two pounds a day Into the river. Gslumbia University Law School professor Abraham Sofaer, who rulod In February that the PCB dumping violated stale law, Is presiding again at the penalty bearings. While lie declined to say what bis final ruling would be, his February decision said that his final recommendation would at least require GE to "drastically" limit discharges "and to rectify the effects of its rior violations where lawfully proper, and economically and environmentally practicable.' He added that effective government action could have prevented much of the environmental damage end that Us recommendation would take that into account. The company has federal permits authorising its discharges. .Softer noted that GE had "operated openly and negligently rather than bi secret or in disregard of CPB discharge limits set in. IU permits." Once Sofaer has presented his final report, which'will follow at least two weeks of public bearings, Environmental Con servation Commissioner Ogden Reid will issue the final abatement and clean-up order. A medical team from Mt. Sinai Hospital in the Bronx has been conducting tests on GE worker* to determine what continued contact with chemical has meant to their health. General Electric has acknowledged that some workers contracted skin rashes linked to PCB. The department and GE have beea aegotlstiag on and off for months, In an attempt to find a reduced level of dumping agreeable to both sides. Commissioner Reid asked that ail discharges atop this September, but there may be room for compromise because the federal government it considering a total ban for 1977. Also, the state Commerce Department has urged that the state not set tougher limits than the federal government because single-state standards might cause industries to move to other states where regulation Is not so strict. The Monsanto Co., the nation's only PCB-maker, has anMwnce&~pttns to phase out production. , Reid's insistence on the penalty bearings, and presumably on making GE pay for some of the damage, Is reportedly a major stumbling block to the behind-the-sesne negotiations. On Monday. Associated Industries of New York, s major lobbying group for industry, asked permission to join the hearings to support GE. A statement said the department's pursuit of penalties is with "without legal authority and, If granted, will have farteachfng and serious economic conse quences to" the group's members. The department has not predicted how much it would coil to purge the river of PCB pollution, but it baa asked GE to postal million compliance bond. . The current hearings will examine whether such a clean up It possible. An EnCon official testified that PCBs were successfully removed from a Washington State river bed through (he use of a sophisticated dredger. But the department has suggested that removal of the sediments might pose an even greater basard because of PCBs stirred from the bottom Into the current. PCBs, which resist natural decomposition much the way DDT does, are known to kli) fish eggs and may cause cancer * In rats. The effect on humans it still under study. J MOMS 036686