January 29, 2002

Montreal Gazette

Damming toxins won’t help
by Nabil Naderi

Your Jan. 22 article “Probe oil slick on river: groups” raises numerous questions. I have a hard time believing the best way of preventing toxins from leaking into the St. Lawrence River is to dam them up.

If the pollutants are prevented from moving laterally, they will surely move vertically. Obviously, the thought of PCBs contaminating the water table is not any more appealing than having them in the river.

In August of last year, the Environmental Protection Agency finally decided to dredge the upper Hudson River in order to clean up its PCB-contaminated sediments. Instead of shifting the problem from the river to the water table, why not spend the money intended for the underground wall on removal of the pollutants from the site?

Nabil Naderi

[For more information on the Hudson River PCB-dredging project, check out the Hudson Riverkeeper web site.]