Lenox — With the February 1 deadline for public comments (send to R1Housatonic@epa.gov) to General Electric Company’s October 31 plan for the transportation of toxic dredged materials within the Berkshires and beyond, residents from all over the county turned out to the January 23 Lenox Open House in hopes of finding ways to respond to the plan that many feel poses potential risks to their health, quality of life, and local environment.
The transportation plan was proposed as part of a 2020 permit to remediate the Housatonic River following decades of contamination by GE depositing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the waterway from its Pittsfield plant. The permit was agreed to by multiple groups, including representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, GE, and the towns comprising the Rest of River cleanup section, from the confluence of the waterway’s east and west branches to Connecticut—Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge. That plan includes an Upland Disposal Facility (UDF), or toxic-waste landfill, to be constructed in Lee that would house lesser-contaminated dredged materials, with the most toxic substances shipped out of the region. GE’s transportation proposal strongly favors trucking these materials to the UDF, as well as out of the area, while the Lenox Board of Health and affected towns have pushed for rail as a safer alternative.
At the event, Jon Elliott and his wife scanned the posters explaining the remediation process that were on display from Lenox technical consultant and host Weston & Sampson civil engineering firm. The couple bought their Pittsfield home a few years ago, adjacent to Holmes Road—a street cited to be on the transportation plan route—and just a stone’s throw from the rail line. “We’re hearing all sorts of disturbing stuff,” Elliott said. “We’re here tonight to see if there are other alternatives. We’re concerned about trucks, dust, spillage, no matter where the product is transported.”
The program came on the heels of a draft report Weston & Sampson filed earlier in the afternoon that provided comments to the transportation plan. Under contract with Lenox, the firm’s role is to provide a review of reports promulgated in the remediation process and to perform a public meeting as a way of responding to community questions, said Malcolm Wheeler, the firm’s senior technical leader.
The Open House offered four information stations for attendees to receive an overview of various sections of the remediation project. At his station, Wheeler displayed sediment collected that morning from the Connecticut River to illustrate how dredged materials will be separated at a staging area, and either filtered and transported to the UDF for disposal or treated and returned to the waterway pursuant to a federal permit. Wheeler’s colleague, Brian McCormack, showed samples of products the group expects will serve as the five liner layers to the UDF. Stations focused on dewatering and geological aspects of the project, transportation, and questions posed by attendees to be addressed during the latter half of the program or online. The Berkshire Edge has requested copies of the display boards presented at the event.
For Lenox Select Board Chair Ed Lane, the evening represented an opportunity for information to emanate from a source other than GE or a federal agency. “The key thing is this is not GE putting this on, this is not EPA putting this on, this is our hired consultants working for the town of Lenox,” he said, adding that the event was open to benefit all of Berkshire County. “We’re all on the same team here.”
Lenox Town Manager Christopher Ketchen told The Berkshire Edge that he encourages residents to contribute comments on the transportation proposal to the EPA, with the Open House experts available to answer their questions “so that when they do submit their comments, they are most effective.”
Despite the snowy weather, Washington, Mass. resident John McElvain trekked to the meeting and voiced concern over the use of trucking to dispose of the dredged material through Berkshire County towns; specifically, “the number of trucks, the possibility of spreading [PCBs], the possibility of an accident with that truck.” He also questioned whether the UDF will be safe for the surrounding area’s residents and if other choices might be available for the toxic materials.
Wheeler said he is supportive of the EPAs efforts to oversee the Superfund project. “I have a great deal of faith in the EPA,” he said to The Berkshire Edge, adding that he is often seated on the other side of the table from the federal agency. “And they really, really take their jobs very seriously, to be protective of human health and the environment. I agree with the EPA. They’re not going to let [GE] do anything unsafe.”
Wheeler said his job is to comment on issues the town wants to focus on. “How do we lessen the impacts on our community,” he said. “What I see at the end of this project is …. the quality of life for the locals, people will be able to recreate in the [Housatonic] River without the fear of contaminants.”
However, being “a dynamic environment,” the Housatonic River remediation plan presents an issue as to retrieving all of the PCB contamination from the waterway, Wheeler said. “If you can get a big enough mass reduction, you can make it safe,” he said.
Relative newcomer Sandy Lacey moved to Lenox from East Boston with her young family. She said her motive for attending the Open House was the reliance on trucking in the released transportation plan as opposed to rail and the lack of attention to other details. “I haven’t seen an air pollution study, I haven’t seen a noise pollution study, I haven’t seen a tourism impact study,” Lacey said, adding that the proposed route for PCB-laden trucks skirts her daughter’s elementary school.
When the more formal seated gathering began, attendees took issue with Wheeler’s comments that the project is “still a long way from actual dredging” of the PCB-laden materials from the Housatonic River, with that phase not due to start until the UDF has been constructed.
Lee resident Clare Lahey, who lives a few hundred yards from the waterway, urged those in attendance and Wheeler to push for rail as the mode of transportation for the PCB materials since that method can be performed immediately, without waiting for the UDF to be built. “Speed is of the essence,” she said, referring to the current exposure of citizens and wildlife to the PCBs existing now in the waterway.
That concept is also advocated by Tri-Town Board of Health Chair Dr. Charles Kenny, who, citing officials of the Housatonic Railroad Company, said rail would be available within a year to transport excavated soil and sediment to approved off-site facilities, in sharp contrast to the current timetable requiring remediation to be pushed off until late 2025 or early 2026 when the facility is finally up and running.
Lane appealed to the audience to make their voices heard when it comes to rail to be finalized as the project’s prime transportation method. “We don’t want trucks running up and down the roads any more than you do,” he said. “I want all of you to know our commitment in Lenox is to push for rail transportation however we can.”
Clean Berkshire Collective Co-director Julia Thomas announced at the session that her group created a petition stemming from residents who oppose the predominant use of trucking in the transportation plan. The newly formed organization focuses on public engagement, knowledge, and accountability surrounding the Housatonic River remediation project.
Click here to access the document that Thomas said has more than 50 signatures as of the date of this publication. “We decided to do a sign-on letter that would amplify our message,” Thomas said. The document not only calls for a feasibility study of the use of rail to transport the dredged toxic materials from the waterway but also looks at the mental health costs associated with the project as well as advocates for the application of “an environmental justice lens” to the plan, she said.
Reactions to the open house format were mixed, as Lenox resident Roberta Bianco stated her strong opposition to the way the information was presented. “Many of us did not even get a chance to get near you,” she said of Wheeler’s station, voicing her preference for a more formal audience presentation in the future.
Weston & Sampson is consulting for phases of the remediation project, but not its entire duration, and Wheeler said his firm intends to post information stemming from the session on the Lenox webpage.
