Housatonic Rest of River — In an October 16 statement referring to plans to prepare a local toxic-waste disposal site for construction, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delayed the date its officials would respond to those plans from mid-October to the end of the month, a reprieve for public stakeholders who were not previously afforded a formal public comment period.
Background
The original text of the preparatory plans was contained within a 360-page document submitted on October 8 by General Electric Company (GE). The company was charged with remediating the Housatonic River after decades of depositing now-banned toxic chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), into the waterway from its Pittsfield plant. The Superfund project for the Rest of River—the cleanup of the Housatonic River from its east and west confluence in Pittsfield to Connecticut—stems from a 2020 agreement between the EPA, GE, and five affected towns. The settlement provides that the materials dredged from the waterway with the highest toxicity will be routed out of the area while the remaining lesser-contaminated dredged soil and sediment will be transported to a to-be-constructed upland disposal facility (UDF) in Lee, near October Mountain. The measure has long been opposed by Lee residents as a health hazard to the town’s citizens and way of life.
The EPA is tasked with reviewing and approving all documents submitted in conjunction with the project, including the October 8 Upland Disposal Facility Site Preparation Supplemental Information Package (SIP) submission. A copy of the submission can be found here.
Although GE’s revised Final Design Plan and Operation, Monitoring, and Maintenance Plan for the UDF was conditionally approved by the EPA in March, the agency nixed a formal public comment period on the October 8 plan to prepare that site for construction, with the preparation project set to begin in early November.
Explaining the timeline
In its October 16 statement, the EPA extended the deadline for it to submit agency comments to the SIP, or UDF preparation plan, to October 31, to “allow more time for the public to provide input.”
According to the EPA, the UDF site preparation work will begin on November 3 as preparation items are moved to the area, erosion controls are created, and trees cleared. The required asbestos abatement and removal of associated waste in existing house structures on the property will occur before those buildings are demolished, followed by the installation of two temporary construction entrances, tree-clearing activities, fencing work, utility additions, and waterline action.
The project’s tree-clearing activities is at the crux of the timeline issue since those actions are governed by the date bats roost in the area.
Drafted by EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Olivia Lopez, the clarification offered the agency’s reasoning for the short timeline as being “necessary to ensure that the remedial schedule remains on time and that the potential rare bat species are not affected by the site preparation work.”
“In collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife, all tree clearing activities must be completed between November 1st and March 31st to avoid adverse impacts to potential roosting rare bats,” the statement provided. “To allow for sufficient time to complete the tree felling in 2025 as outlined in the SIP, GE must begin its work in November.”
The agency reiterated that the upcoming work “is not for the overall construction of the UDF and does not involve the handling of any contaminated material.” Additionally, the preparatory project will not change any components of the overall UDF design and an upcoming SIP detailing the UDF construction “will be available for public input.”
The preparation project is scheduled to end by January 2, but that date is subject to change due to weather and other factors.
