Canal Corporation Provides Testimony to EPA Hudson River Dredging Peer Review Panel

ALBANY, NY (02/17/2010)(readMedia)-- Canal Corporation Director Carmella R. Mantello today provided testimony to the EPA Hudson River Dredging Peer Review Panel at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs. Director Mantello's testimony highlighted the significance of the Champlain Canal and the role the Corporation played to help make Phase 1 of the remedial dredging a success. In addition, the testimony offered support for Phase 2 of the remedial dredging to be completed by General Electric and also stress the need for additional navigational dredging to be included in Phase 2.

Full text of the testimony is as follows:

"My name is Carmella Mantello and I am the Director of the New York State Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority. I want to thank the Peer Review Panel, the United States EPA and General Electric for providing the public an opportunity to participate in this review, and to provide critical information to assist in refining the performance standards to be used during Phase 2 of the Hudson River PCB cleanup.

To date, the Canal Corporation has invested a substantial amount of staff time towards supporting this important remedial project, and it is the position of the Canal Corporation that Phase 2 of the remedial action must be completed by General Electric, however, certain performance standards and dredging activities should be modified to help ensure that the Champlain Canal and canal infrastructure are not negatively impacted by the cleanup process.

The Canal Corporation is New York's State's steward of the historic Erie, Champlain, Oswego and Cayuga-Seneca Canals. The people of the state of New York consider the Canal System to be an extremely important state and national resource. So much so, that the canal system remains protected under the New York State Constitution and cannot be abandoned or otherwise disposed of absent an amendment to the State Constitution. Further, the Champlain Canal is part of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, one of 49 National Heritage Corridors designated by an act of the United States Congress to help preserve our country's history.

Between Fort Edward and Waterford, the Champlain Canal largely lies within the navigable limits of the Hudson River. Since the early 1980s, as a result of the increased dredging and disposal costs directly attributable to the PCB contamination, New York State has been unable to conduct maintenance dredging of the Champlain Canal. As a consequence, the navigability of the Canal has suffered and commercial traffic on the Canal is restricted by available draft in many locations. The inadequate navigational depth of the Canal was made apparent by GE's own practices of under loading barges during Phase 1 of the project in order to avoid groundings. For the reasons I will mention today, the under loading of barges in Phase 2 is not the proper mitigation measure for inadequate depth of the Canal System.

The success or failure of the remediation project lies not just within the Engineering Performance Standards, but also in the ability of the 100-year-old Canal infrastructure to meet the demands of the project. Any impairment of the Canal is ultimately an impairment to the remediation project and its ability to meet the Engineering Performance Standards.

The dredging season in Phase 1 was much longer than anticipated and the Canal Corporation made substantial concessions to keep the Canal open long after our public Navigation Season ended. While this might be possible for the Canal Corporation to accommodate in one year, we cannot commit to continually accommodating unplanned extensions of the Navigation Season. All of the major infrastructure maintenance in the Champlain Canal occurs during the winter when the Canal Corporation has the opportunity to dewater the locks and conduct major equipment overhauls. The Canal Corporation has limited time and staff each winter to conduct this maintenance and every unplanned delay in closing the Canal at the conclusion of the navigation season directly impacts the Canal Corporation's ability to keep the Canal infrastructure in its highest working condition.

Because the volume of traffic will be substantially larger in Phase 2 than during Phase 1, it is imperative that the Canal Corporation's maintenance schedule for the Champlain Canal not be adversely impacted by unplanned season extensions. Any reduction in the winter maintenance will ultimately affect the ability of the locks to sustain substantially increased traffic loads for five consecutive years. The consequences of reduced maintenance would increase the likelihood of both minor and major failures of the infrastructure that would adversely impact the project's productivity. The Canal Corporation will continue to work with GE and EPA on an acceptable closing schedule for the Canal; however, it is important to maintain a dedicated date for closing the canal to permit winter maintenance throughout Phase 2.

In addition to achieving some level of certainty over the schedule, the Canal Corporation also recommends that substantially greater navigational dredging be conducted during Phase 2 to improve the project's efficiency and productivity. If larger tug boats and deeper-draft barges can be used, the number of round-trips between the dredges and the processing facility can be minimized. This will directly improve productivity by making operations more efficient, but it will also indirectly improve productivity by reducing the operational burdens on the locks and staff, reducing the likelihood of significant maintenance problems.

I would also like to address the Canal Corporation's concerns over how the Residuals Standard was implemented in Phase 1. In the Certification Units East of Rogers Island, contaminated sediments were capped within the boundaries of the navigation channel. The original Residuals Standard provided for this scenario and as a consequence, caps were placed within the navigation channel exactly at a depth of 12 feet, which s the minimum navigational depth of the Champlain canal. At first impression, this might seem like navigational needs have been protected, but this is simply not the case.

The Canal Corporation's standard maintenance dredging protocols incorporate a 2-foot undercut beneath the navigation depth of 12 feet. This procedure minimizes the frequency at which the Canal Corporation has to redredge the same areas and it also ensures that even with some refill, the full navigation depth of 12 feet will remain available to vessels. By placing caps at 12 feet, the Canal Corporation no longer has the ability to undercut the dredge areas. More importantly, the Canal Corporation's operations would have to target a depth less than 12 feet to avoid damaging the cap, further impeding the navigation of the canal.

Additional serious questions are raised by placing caps at 12 feet depth within the navigation channel. If maintenance dredging damages or penetrates the cap, the residual sediments beneath the cap will be exposed to the environment and the effectiveness of the remedy will be jeopardized. This is particularly true in CU-1, where the entire Fort Edward Yacht Basin was capped at 12 feet, permanently leaving TSCA-regulated PCB wastes immediately beneath the cap.

Even if GE is responsible for maintaining and repairing damaged caps under the Consent Decree, their obligation expires after 30 years. Maintenance dredging of the Champlain Canal will be conducted in perpetuity, well beyond the 30-year time frame of the Consent Decree. Who will ensure the integrity of the caps after that time? It seems far more prudent to avoid placing any caps within the boundaries of the navigation channel where the likelihood of future breaches of the cap is significant. The Canal Corporation respectfully requests this panel to revisit the Residuals Standard to preclude capping within the navigation channel, at any depth, because caps in the navigational channel will seriously impede future maintenance dredging of this state constitutionally-protected resource for generations. Finally, given the vessel movement and maintenance obligations of the navigational channel, it is imperative that remedial dredging within the navigational channel continue until the 1ppm Residual Standard is met.

The Canal Corporation will be submitting more detailed comments on these issues in the future. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon."

The New York State Canal System is comprised of four historic waterways, the Erie, the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals. Spanning 524 miles across New York State, the waterway links the Hudson River, Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes and the Niagara River with communities rich in history and culture.

The New York State Canal Corporation is a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority (Authority). Since 1992, following State legislation transferring the Canal System from the New York State Department of Transportation to the Authority, Canal operating and maintenance activities have been supported by Thruway toll revenue.

For information regarding events, recreational and vacation opportunities along the Canal System, please visit www.nyscanals.gov or call 1-800-4CANAL4.

The New York State Thruway Authority/Canal Corporation offers a free email service called TRANSalert to its customers via email or text messaging to inform them of major incidents and emergencies that may affect travel on the Thruway or navigation on the Canal System. To sign up for the Canal TRANSalert service, customers can visit the Corporation's website at www.nyscanals.gov/tas/. To sign-up for Thruway TRANSalerts please visit the Authority's website at www.nysthruway.gov/tas/.

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