english station has a high concentration of pcb contamination due to the chemicals used in the running of the plant. this, along with asbestos contamination, has made cleaning and demolishing the abandoned site extremely difficult. the pcb contamination has spread to the soil, and to the river, where locals will sometimes fish unaware of the danger. great lakes in 1976, environmentalists found pcbs in the sludge at waukegan harbor, the southwest end of lake michigan. they were able to trace the source of the pcbs back to the outboard marine corporation that was producing boat motors next to the harbor. by 1982, the outboard marine corporation was court-ordered to release quantitative data referring to their pcb waste released. the data stated that from 1954 they released 100,000 tons of pcb into the environment, and that the sludge contained pcbs in concentrations as high as 50%. in 1989, during construction near the zilwaukee bridge, workers uncovered an uncharted landfill containing pcb-contaminated waste which required $100,000 to clean up. much of the great lakes area were still heavily polluted with pcbs in 1988, despite extensive remediation work. indiana from the late 1950s through 1977, westinghouse electric used pcbs in the manufacture of capacitors in its bloomington, indiana, plant. reject capacitors were hauled and dumped in area salvage yards and landfills, including bennett's dump, neal's landfill and lemon lane landfill. workers also dumped pcb oil down factory drains, which contaminated the city sewage treatment plant. the city of bloomington gave away the sludge to area farmers and gardeners, creating anywhere from 200 to 2,000 sites, which remain unaddressed. over 2 million pounds of pcbs were estimated to have been dumped in monroe and owen counties. although federal and state authorities have been working on the sites' environmental remediation, many areas remain contaminated. concerns have been raised regarding the removal of pcbs from the karst limestone topography, and regarding the possible disposal options. to date, the westinghouse bloomington pcb superfund site case does not have a remedial investigation/feasibility study (ri/fs) and record of decision (rod), although westinghouse signed a us department of justice consent decree in 1985. the 1985 consent decree required westinghouse to construct an incinerator that would incinerate pcb-contaminated materials. because of public opposition to the incinerator, however, the state of indiana passed a number of laws that delayed and blocked its construction. the parties to the consent decree began to explore alternative remedies in 1994 for six of the main pcb contaminated sites in the consent decree. hundreds of sites remain unaddressed as of 2014. monroe county will never be pcb-free, as noted in a 2014 indiana university program about the local contamination. on february 15, 2008, monroe county approved a plan to clean up the three remaining contaminated sites in the city of bloomington, at a cost of $9.6 million to cbs corp., the successor of westinghouse. in 1999, viacom bought cbs, so they are current responsible party for the pcb sites. massachusetts pittsfield, in western massachusetts, was home to the general electric (ge) transformer, capacitor, and electrical generating equipment divisions. the electrical generating division built and repaired equipment that was used to power the electrical utility grid throughout the nation. pcb-contaminated oil routinely migrated from ge's 254-acre (1.03 km2) industrial plant located in the very center of the city to the surrounding groundwater, nearby silver lake, and to the housatonic river, which flows through massachusetts, connecticut, and down to long island sound. pcb-containing solid material was widely used as fill, including oxbows of the housatonic river. fish and waterfowl who live in and around the river contain significant levels of pcbs and are not safe to eat. epa designated the pittsfield plant and several miles of the river as a superfund site in 1997, and ordered ge to remediate the site. epa and ge began a cleanup of the area in 1999. new bedford harbor, which is a listed superfund site, contained some of the highest sediment concentrations of pcbs in the marine environment. cleanup of the area began in 1994 and is mostly complete as of 2020. investigations into historic waste dumping in the bliss corner neighborhood have revealed the existence of pcbs, among other hazardous materials, buried into soil and waste material. missouri in 1982, martha c. rose chemical inc. began processing and disposing of materials contaminated with pcbs in holden, missouri, a small rural community about 40 miles (64 km) east of kansas city. from 1982 until 1986, nearly 750 companies, including general motors corp., commonwealth edison, illinois power co. and west texas utilities, sent millions of pounds of pcb contaminated materials to holden for disposal. instead, according to prosecutors, the company began storing the contaminated materials while falsifying its reports to the epa to show they had been removed. after investigators learned of the deception, rose chemical was closed and filed for bankruptcy. the site had become the nation's largest waste site for the chemical pcb. in the four years the company was operational, the epa inspected it four times and assessed $206,000 in fines but managed to collect only $50,000. after the plant closed the state environmental agency found pcb contamination in streams near the plant and in the city's sewage treatment sludge. a 100,000 square-foot warehouse and unknown amounts of contaminated soil and water around the site had to be cleaned up. most of the surface debris, including close to 13 million pounds of contaminated equipment, carcasses and tanks of contaminated oil, had to be removed. walter c. carolan, owner of rose chemical, and five others pleaded guilty in 1989 to committing fraud or falsifying documents. carolan and two other executives served sentences of less than 18 months; the others received fines and were placed on probation. cleanup costs at the site are estimated at $35 million. new york pollution of the hudson river is largely due to dumping of pcbs by general electric from 1947 to 1977. ge dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of pcbs into the hudson river during these years. the pcbs came from the company's two capacitor manufacturing plants at hudson falls and fort edward, new york. this pollution caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river or drink the water. in 1984, epa declared a 200-mile (320 km) stretch of the river, from hudson falls to new york city, to be a superfund site requiring cleanup. extensive remediation actions on the river began in the 1970s with the implementation of wastewater discharge permits and consequent control or reduction of wastewater discharges, and sediment removal operations, which have continued into the 21st century. love canal is a neighborhood in niagara falls, new york, that was heavily contaminated with toxic waste including pcbs. eighteen mile creek in lockport, new york, is an epa superfund site for pcbs contamination. pcb pollution at the state office building in binghamton was responsible for what is now considered to be the first indoor environmental disaster in the united states. in 1981, a transformer explosion in the basement spewed pcbs throughout the entire 18-story building. the contamination was so severe that cleanup efforts kept the building closed for 13 years. north carolina one of the largest deliberate pcb spills in american history occurred in the summer of 1978 when 31,000 gallons (117 m^3) of pcb-contaminated oil were illegally sprayed by the ward pcb transformer company in 3-foot (0.91 m) swaths along the roadsides of some 240 miles (390 km) of north carolina highway shoulders in 14 counties and at the fort bragg army base. the crime, known as "the midnight dumpings", occurred over nearly 2 weeks, as drivers of a black-painted tanker truck drove down one side of rural piedmont highways spraying pcb-laden waste and then up the other side the following night. under governor james b. hunt, jr., state officials then erected large, yellow warning signs along the contaminated highways that read: "caution: pcb chemical spills along highway shoulders". the illegal dumping is believed to have been motivated by the passing of the toxic substances control act (tsca), which became effective on august 2, 1978, and increased the expense of chemical waste disposal. within a couple of weeks of the crime, robert burns and his sons, timothy and randall, were arrested for dumping the pcbs along the roadsides. burns was a business partner of robert "buck" ward, jr., of the ward pcb transformer company, in raleigh. burns and sons pleaded guilty to state and federal criminal charges; burns received a three to five-year prison sentence. ward was acquitted of state charges in the dumping, but was sentenced to 18 months prison time for violation of tsca. cleanup and disposal of the roadside pcbs generated controversy, as the governor's plan to pick up the roadside pcbs and to bury them in a landfill in rural warren county were strongly opposed in 1982 by local residents. in october 2013, at the request of the south carolina department of health and environmental control (scdhec), the city of charlotte, north carolina, decided to stop applying sewage sludge to land while authorities investigated the source of pcb contamination. in february 2014, the city of charlotte admitted pcbs have entered their sewage treatment centers as well. after the 2013 scdhec had issued emergency regulations, the city of charlotte discovered high levels of pcbs entering its sewage waste water treatment plants, where sewage is converted to sewage sludge. the city at first denied it had a problem, then admitted an "event" occurred in february 2014, and in april that the problem had occurred much earlier. the city stated that its very first test with a newly changed test method revealed very high pcb levels in its sewage sludge farm field fertilizer. because of the widespread use of the contaminated sludge, scdhec subsequently issued pcb fish advisories for nearly all streams and rivers bordering farm fields that had been applied with city waste. ohio the clyde cancer cluster (also known as the sandusky county cancer cluster) is a childhood cancer cluster that has affected many families in clyde, ohio, and surrounding areas. pcbs were found in soil in a public park within the area of the cancer cluster. in akron, ohio, soil was contaminated and noxious pcb-laden fumes had been put into the air by an electrical transformer deconstruction operation from the 1930s to the 1960s. south carolina from 1955 until 1977, the sangamo weston plant in pickens, south carolina, used pcbs to manufacture capacitors, and dumped 400,000 pounds of pcb contaminated wastewater into the twelve mile creek. in 1990, the epa declared the 228 acres (0.92 km2) site of the capacitor plant, its landfills and the polluted watershed, which stretches nearly 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) downstream to lake hartwell as a superfund site. two dams on the twelve mile creek are to be removed and on feb. 22, 2011 the first of two dams began to be dismantled. some contaminated sediment is being removed from the site and hauled away, while other sediment is pumped into a series of settling ponds. in 2013, the state environmental regulators issued a rare emergency order, banning all sewage sludge from being land applied or deposited on landfills, as it contained very high levels of pcbs. the problem had not been discovered until thousands of acres of farm land in the state had been contaminated by the hazardous sludge. a criminal investigation to determine the perpetrator of this crime was launched. washington as of 2015, several bodies of water in the state of washington were contaminated with pcbs, including the columbia river, the duwamish river, green lake, lake washington, the okanogan river, puget sound, the spokane river, the walla walla river, the wenatchee river, and the yakima river. a study by washington state published in 2011 found that the two largest sources of pcb flow into the spokane river were city of spokane stormwater (44%) and municipal and industrial discharges (20%). pcbs entered the environment through paint, hydraulic fluids, sealants, inks and have been found in river sediment and wildlife. spokane utilities will spend $300 million to prevent pcbs from entering the river in anticipation of a 2017 federal deadline to do so. in august 2015 spokane joined other u.s cities like san diego and san jose, california, and westport, massachusetts, in seeking damages