Document bO5LM6a3oGkdk8QmVy1e5oeey

General Electric Will Pay $3 Million in BQ& Dumping | New York State Department of En vironmental Conservation A General Electric Company last week agreed to split the cost of a 17 million program to remove the toxic chemicals' poly chlorinated biphenyls, (PCB's) from the Hudsen River. beet week's settlement did not dHi legal eutpehfttty to OK tor poltattng the liver, but Is nevertheless regarded as a vie* tar? by conservationists who contend that the derision has established a precedent far future questions on the polluter's lespcnsi Mtttp. - ,,* baa *sa agraad So ^continue Urn use of PCR's la eapaeMar gmduttiuw at M* Hudson JfaBs and Fnt Edward ..] pinnts by July 1, 1977. As pert of the sgroe- ment, the company will spend II million on research, seme of which will be used to de termine the environmental effects of tbp unnamed PCB substitute which the comps- ay will use aext year. New York State and CE have agreed lo contribute |3 million each to s joint pro gram that will continuously measure pres ent discharges of PCB's Into the Hudson and take action against residual amounts of the chemical In the waters and sediment of the Hudson. . General Electric wtO move to reduce the present levels of PCB discharge, estimated at about a pound a day. So average bvgi of one gram per day by April. 1177. Thte wllI be accomplished, the company says, by a B-S million pollution-treatment facility whoa it ia completed and in operation post *Tuier the July I curtailment of PCBfuaa tail capecitor production, the facility can he umd to Until discharges l the submit** compound.^* well as monitor the flow of any reside* PCB's In GB's efDuont. Environmental officials say that cautin* usd monitoring of PCB's from GK's outfall will be necessary because of leaching of the toxic dtemira) into the ground and waters Cpetieusd on Page II MONS 037367 General Electric Oontinoed from Pagr 3 surrounding the two upstate New Yort plmU. Of the II million that GK plans to spend on research, >400,000 wiB he spent on eva- lasting Che economic impart of possible aubetitutos; 1400,000 on research con cerning the removal of PCB'i from water* and sedMneaL and the remaining monies will be used far environmental studio* of substances to be chosen kgr Commissioner of Environmental Conservation, Peter A.A. Berio. ' The agreement' has been called "an ef fective precedent for denting with situa tions of Joint culpabfllty." V Pro* Abra ham T. Sofaer. the Columbia University law professor who conducted the bearings. Prof. Sofaer recommended that the settle ment bo accepted, noting that GE bad re quested and obtained Federal and state permits to dump PQF* late the Hudson Elver ` Gov. Hugh L. Carey, who attended last week's Joint now* conference with state of ficials and GE representatives, called the agreement "an excellent example of awi the! industry and the state can work togteftK er." AGREEMENT WEED . The agreement to step dumping by July 1VT7. woe signed by Commissioner Bmie ad John F. Welch, a G.E. vice president, and ha* bean cited by environmentalists as an attemaUva to costly and time conBurn ing logs! proceedings, but no guarantees ore being Issued hy either side. The total amount of money devoted to cleaning up the Hudson Is Ukaly to fall far short of the actual cost of Em operation. Commissioner Eerie has stated that ha tools the actual east of removing PCBt from the river could run at high as f12 te ISO million, end that ho will attempt to pern cum the additional funds. General Electric has been discharging PCBs into the Hudson River for about twenty-five years, and there is an estimate PCI workers lived longer than the mtteaai average." Evidence from the preliminary study suggests that the cases of lung cancer are not PCB-dese relatod, the company says. Dr. Roush adds that Monsanto's extensive long-term feeding studies with animals would further indicate that PCB's are not carcinogenic. The company announced last January, I however, the! it will voluntarily ceaoa allI PCB production. "ao soon as possible.''] AROMATIC PRICE CHANGES Week Ending Bopt. 1*, itryq ADVANCED RCOUCED COMPARATIVE PRICE INDEXES Lam <ioo-iso wwost Prev Loot Sept t? Week Week Month 1975 r 104.17 30447 204 9 200.10 *: i___________________________ Par Currant Piteot See Pogo 4>. V consistent with the ability of transformer! and capacitor manufacturers te convert tel viable substitutes. I In recent developments, the presence of 1 PCB was detected In the milk of more than thirty women in Michigan. In Japan, con tamination of foodstuffs by PCB's resulted te various illnesses in more than 70S per sons, who Ingested PCB-containtog rice b^an cooking oil. Last week, tho Georgia Board of Neutral Resources ended commercial fishing on the Coooe River for IB days because of high levels of PCB's. and warned fisherman to dispose of fish that they have caught. The ban was imposed after laboratory testa detected up to twenty-five Uaees the woters and on the river bottom. An estimat ed M.000 pounds of PCB's wort dumpod into tile Hudson during the year* IMS to 1972, occording to published reports. 1W compound, which has boon used In many areas of chemical manufacture, la Ideal for the manufacture of capacitor* be cause it is inert, fire resistant and it can held an electrical charge. It does.' however, ding to small partictaa *f matter In lake and river water and will remain te tea seg ment of bodtea ef water. Carcinogenicity of the chemical was es tablished only recently-it hod been known to bo toxic for some time-end its appear ance in high levels in fish taken from the Hudson brought It to public attention late last year Workers at the two General Elec tric plants who had come into contact with PCB'# for long periods of time hove exhib ited several different kinds ef illnesses. Mobil Oil Corporation's study of seventy* two workers exposed to a PCB product at a plant in New Jeraey found throe eases of melanoma and two cases of pancreatic can cer: well above national averages. Monsna- te, a producer ef PCB's, lest week issued preliminary information from an ongoing PCB study that failed to confirm the Mobil Ragtags. . Tentative findings in the Monsanto rtisdy, according te Dr. George Roush, di rector of the company's medical and envi ronmental health department, "is thet our ban win effect fishing from Rome. Georgia site of a GE plant. 4o tha state line. Joe Tanner, Commitstoner of Natnrat Resources, sold tbs cootaminatiea usanotes from the GE plant at Rome, where electrical equipment is manufactured. The discharge boa been ongoing for twentyyears Mr. Taonsr, says, but GE has baen | working te reduce PCB's in its drainage steco 1979. BTX-Spot prices for boncent have sail' . aned, according to reports from Gulf Coast sources, end are new at Ot. to 94c. per gal- ton. Hits became particularly evident last week when several large psrrels of bensene were sold at tec. par gallon for expert. Demand has been dismal, sources soy, and new that Labor Day has come and gone, some marketers are getting a little nervous. Contract prices are reportedly holding to established levels, however, and Should continue to do so. j The market picture for toluene has re mained basically tha same. Material is available for 54c. to 55c. per gallon on the Wot market. The impact of the impending EPA lead reductions has apparently ant made its presence felt yet. perhaps haeanaa ' gasoline makers suspect thet lend losute wiB not be reduced te 1.4 grams par gaRra on the present schedule. Industry source says that a final dertstau will be coming from EPA on September 19, and that largo Volumes of new data have M0NS 037368