FORT EDWARD — General Electric Co. is set to begin taking down the 400,000 square feet of buildings that used to comprise the firm’s electrical capacitor factory, which closed in 2016.

The teardown will start during the week of Oct. 21 and is expected to last nine months, according to a statement by GE.

Total Wrecking & Environmental LLC from Buffalo has been hired to pull down the buildings, most of which are located along Route 4.

Rather than wrecking balls and dynamite, the company will use an excavator to take down the structures, with the debris taken away by truck.

Work will be limited to weekday and daytime hours, and no road closures are planned.

There will also be stations to monitor for PCBs, volatile organic compounds and small airborne particulates in the air at property boundaries. If they are detected at certain state-established levels, GE will address that, the company said.

Employing 200 at its peak, the plant closed when production work was shifted to Clearwater, Fla.

PCBs, which were used in capacitor production, had been dumped into the Hudson River for years, both at the Fort Edward and Hudson Falls plants.

While PCBs were legal years ago, they are now understood to be carcinogenic and harmful to fish stocks.

There are a number of additional substances on the site, according to DEC documents, including paint, caustic soda and acetone.

GE spent more than $1 billion over six years to dredge the river in an effort to remove PCBs. While the company has shut down that work, environmental groups and state officials have said more work should be done.

 
 
  • The federal Environmental Protection Agency oversaw the seven-year Hudson River dredging project by General Electric that concluded in 2015. GE, which dredged a 40-mile section of river from Fort Edward to Troy, has steadfastly maintained it has met EPA requirements that were part of a 2002 agreement. Click through for photos of the project through the years.  Photo: Dan Little/Special To The Times Union / Dan Little
Photo: Dan Little/Special To The Times Union
 
The federal Environmental Protection Agency oversaw the seven-year Hudson River dredging project by General Electric that concluded in 2015. GE, which dredged a 40-mile section of river from Fort Edward to … more

Company spokesman John Brodt said GE plans to keep the land in Fort Edward. It will also continue to operate the water treatment plant on the site.

As well as longstanding worries about the effects of PCBs on animal and human health, closure of the plant has also posed financial challenges to Fort Edward and its school system, which were reliant on tax revenues from the plant.

Anyone with questions about the project can call the GE-Fort Edward Community Information line at (518) 792-1958.