Q&A: Controversy lingers after $1.7B cleanup of Hudson River

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Dredging crews left the Hudson River two years ago, but criticism of the $1.7 billion cleanup is bubbling up again.

Advocates who want the Environmental Protection Agency to order crews back on the river are expected in Poughkeepsie on Wednesday. The EPA is holding a public hearing on its five-year review of the Superfund project.

The EPA says that based on the data so far, General Electric's cleanup of contaminated sediment from the upper Hudson will protect human health and the environment in the long term. But environmentalists and New York elected officials say the cleanup doesn't go far enough.

Until the mid-1970s, GE factories discharged PCBs into the river. The probable carcinogen, used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, was banned in 1977.