Massena Active Landfills
Buried beneath the former sites of General Motors and Acloa are tens of thousands of tons of PCB contaminated soil.
GENERAL MOTORS
General Motors–Central Foundry Division Superfund Site in Massena, New York, was listed as a Superfund site in 1984. It is one of the top 10 worst sites in the country. GM used PCBs from 1959 until 1980. When GM originally closed off the landfill, they capped it with plastic, covered it with clay and soil, and planted trees and grass over it, buried underneath were tens of thousands of tons of PCBs that have contaminated ground water, river sediments, and soils at the facility and on the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s reservation.
ALCOA
Remediation Alternatives
On the Grass River Project website, a website for the public to stay informed about the 2019-2020 clean up effort at this Superfund site, we are told there are three primary options available for cleaning up PCB's in sediments: 1) Natural recovery, in other words do nothing. 2) Cap the sediments, which has been problematic in the past. and, 3) Removal of sediments, or dredging. In this case, the sediments are placed in onsite landfills or taken to a permitted offsite landfill.
Grasse River Cleanup Costs
In 2013 the EPA announced its proposed plan for Alcoa to cleanup two decades’ worth of hazardous waste released into the Grasse River. The $245 million plan included“capping over the majority of contaminated sediment in the river’s main channel, along with some dredging near the shoreline. The EPA explored 10 different cleanup alternatives, ranging from a three-year, $114 million option to an 18-year, $1.3 billion option.” Bob Beckstead, NNY360
The plan was recommended by a number of elected officials, including Senator Chuck Schumer.