Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Hudson River Superfund Site

The sediments of the Upper Hudson River (UHR) contain PCBs originating from wastewater discharges from two General Electric Company (GE) capacitor manufacturing plants located in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, NY.  In 2002, the USEPA issued the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Upper Hudson River outlining the selected remedy for remediation of PCB-contaminated sediments.  The selected remedy specified requirements for removal of sediment and required characterization of fish baseline conditions in numerous locations prior to implementation of the remedy.   The objective of the baseline monitoring program (BMP) was to establish baseline PCB levels in Upper Hudson River resident sport fish and resident forage fish to allow for documentation of the changes in PCB concentration that result from remediation.

To meet USEPA requirements, a comprehensive fish sampling program was designed and implemented.  The BMP was designed to characterize PCB concentrations in representative UHR resident sport and forage fish prior to dredging. For data comparability purposes, the historical Hudson River fish sampling program formed the basis for the design of the fish BMP.  Fish sampling was conducted twice per year (spring and fall) over a five-year period.  Fish species covering a range of fish association with sediments were selected for monitoring. Up to five locations were sampled in three of the major pools within the UHR (River Sections 1, 2, and 3) to determine if the routine historical sampling locations were representative of the River Section average.  In addition, the Feeder Dam Pool in Glens Falls served as a reference location, as it is located upstream of planned remedial activities and PCB concentrations in fish collected from this location have been close to background in recent years.  A location downstream of the Federal Dam in Troy was used to establish baseline levels in fish in this portion of the Lower Hudson River, as fish from this location have shown to be affected by changes in Upper Hudson River PCB loads.

 Details of the program design and an assessment of the success of implementation will be presented.