Contact: Todd Main 202-387-8030
Angela Uherbelau 917-438-4610

Citizens to Cleanup GE, a project of the non-profit group Essential Information, called upon President George W. Bush to support the EPA's plan to clean up the Hudson River. As part of its campaign, Cleanup GE will unveil a website and a series of print ads tomorrow featuring families who have suffered from GE's PCB pollution. The website (www.CleanUpGE.org) and print advertisements slated for the New York Times and Roll Call exhort President Bush to hold GE accountable. The website will also highlight work done by civic, religious and environmental groups supporting removal of the toxic PCBs.

"The website and ads show that GE's pollution devastates not just the water and wildlife, but people," said Todd Main, Cleanup GE campaign spokesperson for Essential Information. "If President Bush delays or weakens the EPA's decision to clean up the Hudson, he confirms Americans' belief that in his administration, GE and its corporate campaign money matter more than our children's health, our environment or our future."

By its own admission, GE discharged over a million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River from its two manufacturing plants in upstate New York from 1947-1977. Contrary to GE's campaign of misinformation, PCBs have been shown to cause cancer in humans. Currently, the EPA warns that children under 15 and woman of childbearing age should not eat anything taken from the Hudson River.

"My wife died of colon cancer at age 49," said Don Morrison, a dairy farmer whose land had been filled with GE's PCBs. "We believe that the PCBs had a tremendous amount to do with it."

Last year, the EPA drafted a plan to dredge a 40-mile long series of locations from Troy to the so-called Thompson Island pool just south of GE's factories. In response, GE launched a massive campaign to avoid responsibility for the cleanup. Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm, recently released a citizens' guide detailing 40 land sites where GE's PCB contamination threatens homes, drinking water and the Hudson. Citizens may view a free copy of the guide at www.CleanUpGE.org.

"GE is a giant corporate polluter," said Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting. "They don't care about the environment. They don't care about the public's health."

The EPA is expected to make its final decision in August. High-level Republicans supporting the cleanup include New York Governor George Pataki and acting New Jersey Governor Donald DiFrancesco as well as six GOP congressmen from New York and New Jersey. While governor of New Jersey, current EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman publicly supported cleaning the Hudson.

For additional information on GE's Hudson River pollution, visit www.CleanUpGE.org or call Essential Information at 202-387-8030.