A panel of experts appointed by GE and the Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing the findings from the first year of Hudson River dredging and plotting a course for the next phase.

The cleanup is expected to continue in 2011.The only problem, reports the Albany Times Union, is that the two parties are not on agreement on many topics -- including how much PCB contamination was cleaned up, why more PCBs escaped into the river than expected and what steps should be next.

The panel listened to the competing viewpoints this week and has until May 28 to submit a draft report on how the project should be changed, if at all. Members of the panel are barred from talking privately with GE, the EPA or any member of the public on the issue, highlighting its sensitive nature.

The federal government declared a long stretch of the Hudson River a Superfund site 25 years ago, largely due to PCB contamination that emanated from two GE plants north of Albany. After a protracted legal battle, GE began removing PCBs from the riverbed last year.