FORT EDWARD, NY — General Electric is suing National Grid in hope of getting the utility to help pay for the $1 billion-plus Superfund cleanup of contaminated sediment from the upper Hudson River.

The court action was announced yesterday, as crews began a fourth year of dredging PCBs from the river.

GE, based in Fairfield, Conn., released the PCBs decades ago. A federal complaint filed Friday says National Grid’s predecessor, Niagara Mohawk, removed a dam near Fort Edward in 1973, sending some million cubic yards of contaminated sediment downstream.

National Grid did not immediately comment.