Housatonic Rest of River — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its conditional approval on March 21 of General Electric’s (GE’s) revised plans for the design as well as the operations, monitoring, and maintenance of the toxic-waste landfill component of the Housatonic Rest of River remediation project.
The action follows a September 12 measure in which the agency reviewed the company’s initial plans for the toxic-waste facility slated for Lee and pushed GE to resubmit the documents. In its response to GE’s first iteration of the Upland Disposal Facility (UDF) design plan, the EPA sought, among other requirements, evidence to ensure the landfill liner will be able to securely hold the dredged materials without leaking; more specificity of the leachate treatment system and decontamination proposal; a second access road to the UDF property; a review of the UDF slope so as to deter degradation from significant rainfall; information as to the protection of the site’s vernal pools; and a revised greenhouse-gas evaluation. Regarding UDF operations and maintenance, GE was required to define the specifics of its construction equipment decontamination process, detail its leachate collection system, and increase how often it provides operation and maintenance reports.
On December 20, GE submitted its Revised UDF Final Design Plan and UDF Revised Operation, Monitoring and Maintenance Plan (OMM).
In a March 20 cover letter accompanying its comments to two GE revised reports, the EPA cited their effort as “a significant step in the construction of the UDF and the needed cleanup of the Housatonic River.”
A remediation plan for the Housatonic River was put into place with a 2020 agreement between the EPA, GE, and five towns—Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge—following decades of GE depositing the now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the waterway. That agreement provided for the most toxic materials dredged from the river to be taken out of the area, leaving the lower-PCB-concentrated materials to be stored in a UDF, or landfill, in Lee. The town’s residents have long opposed the provisions, citing safety and environmental concerns regarding the site, as well as the proposed transportation route to cart the dredged toxic materials through southern Berkshire County.
The EPA stated it expects to begin preparations to construct the UDF—including delivering equipment to the site—by the end of the year, with further specifics due from GE on those construction activities due to come.
In a public presentation last April, Matthew Calacone, GE-Aerospace senior project manager for the UDF, said the landfill would rise to a maximum of 1,099 feet above sea level, higher than the 1,030 to 1,050 feet above sea level ground surface currently at the site. The project will accommodate up to 1.3 million cubic yards of dredged material within a 20-acre section of the UDF tract, with the area dug out and then sloped to accommodate the UDF, he said.
Renderings of the UDF can be found here.
In its March 21 release, the EPA stated “the UDF will be safe for recreational uses such as walking trails and hiking.” Its officials have discussed with Lee stakeholders the option of the UDF site serving as a “pollinator garden” after the project is finished.
EPA’s conditional approval of the documents follows a public input period that ended February 10.
Revised UDF Final Design Plan comments
During the public input period and hearing for the plan, attendees voiced concern over the effect that global warming and possible increased rainfall might have on the UDF. The EPA pointed out that, in its revision, “GE did not consider potential increases in precipitation amounts due to climate change as was considered in the overall stormwater management system for the UDF.”
As a result, the EPA is requiring GE to change its protocol for monitoring vernal pools by reviewing the existing and proposed grade elevations around the perimeter of the structures to determine if increased water flow over a long time would negatively impact the pools.
Many remaining EPA comments focus on the company revising technical specs to align better with the UDF drawings; adding detail, including for reusing excavated soils as general fill for the project, its leachate collection system, the electrical and control system; defining material terms used in reports and drawings; revising some testing methods; including an observation component to its vernal-pool-monitoring segment; adding information as to the permeability of the silt layer to the UDF; and specifying topsoil requirements.
A copy of the EPA’s conditional approval of the Revised UDF Final Design Plan can be found here.
UDF Revised OMM comments
The EPA conditioned its OMM plan approval on GE revising how often the company will submit its OMM plan updates as well as the time it can take to post the listed data to the public.
Agency comments focused on GE addressing how long its “daily cover material”—materials used to cover the extracted waste from being released into the environment as a hazard—can remain in place and the procedure to be used if the project’s final cover is eroding.
However, the comments provide that many of these items can wait until GE files a supplemental information package or other plan revisions later this year.
A copy of the EPA’s conditional approval of the UDF Revised OMM can be found here.
