BRINGING BAD THINGS TO LIFE.

If an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) draft plan is passed, the Hudson may finally be freed of 100,000 pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that have long been hanging round the river, and General Electric (GE)likewise parted from a pesky $500 million. The company was found financially responsible for cleaning up the 40-mile stretch of PCB pollution, which originated from its two New York plants decades ago (see "A River Runs Through It," Currents, September/October 2000).

The proposed plan is already dredging up a lot more than just toxins. GE filed suit in federal court shortly before it was released for public comment, charging that the nation's Superfund law, under which the federal agency acted, is "flatly unconstitutional." Besides the Hudson River, GE is responsible for some 80 other Superfund sites across the country. A long-awaited study by the National Academy of Sciences did not shed light on the situation, as hoped; it neither recommended nor rejected the wisdom of the EPA action. CONTACT: GE, [phone], www.ge.com; EPA, [phone], www.epa.gov/hudson.