NY: Nader looks forward to lawsuits against GE over Hudson River Pollution

By Michael Hill, Associated Press, 10/6/2000 15:05

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Ralph Nader accused General Electric Co. of waging a propaganda campaign to avoid paying for a Hudson River cleanup and said citizen lawsuits could increase pressure on the company.

''It is necessary to hold General Electric responsible for ... billions of dollars of past damage that they've done because they have contaminated the fishery; they have reduced the free use of that waterway,'' Nader said at a news conference Friday promoting his run for presidency on the Green Party line.

A GE spokesman called Nader ''wildly misinformed.''

General Electric is running a media campaign criticizing dredging of the upper Hudson as the federal Environmental Protection Agency considers whether to force a cleanup of PCBs from the river bottom. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were discharged into the Hudson River by GE for about 30 years until they were banned by the federal government in 1977.

A decision is due from the EPA in December.

Nader, speaking to reporters before a campaign rally, said company officials were trying to ''propagandize their way'' out of responsibility. He suggested regulatory reviews by the EPA and state officials should be augmented by class-action lawsuits. While saying he had no plans to file his own lawsuit, Nader said he ''looked forward'' to lawsuits from local groups.

''There are enough groups along the Hudson that are organized that would hold GE's feet to the fire much more strenuously,'' Nader told reporters.

GE spokesman Mark Behan said the company has been helping clean up the river for decades and noted the dramatic reduction in the PCB levels in fish and water.

''The company has met all of its obligations to government agencies,'' he said. Behan added that more than 60 communities have passed resolutions opposing dredging.

Nader later received a rousing ovation at a packed church rally when he said GE must be held accountable. Nader told the crowd they must fight the concentration of power in large corporations and the two major political parties. He continued to criticize his exclusion from the first presidential debate.

PCBs have been linked to cancer in laboratory animals, and federal EPA officials say they probably are a carcinogen in humans as well.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/280/region/Nader_looks_forward_to_lawsuit:.shtml

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 06, 2000