Following General Electric Company’s (GE) roll out of two key proposals in its Housatonic Rest of River remediation proposal—Quality of Life Compliance Plan and Updated Project Operations Plan—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) replied July 22 with its conditional approval that included a push for more specificity in mitigation measures, qualitative standards, public-road provisions, sampling work, and decontamination and monitoring protocols. These EPA revisions are due to be incorporated by GE into the articles no later than November 22, with a public input period to follow.
Additionally, the agency will hold a public meeting in September or October to discuss a fact sheet it released simultaneously with its responses to the two plans, detailing the safety of the cleanup project given its two decades of site-work records. Although similar EPA documents have been promulgated in conjunction with other Superfund cleanup sites, Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said the document was “a good match” for the Rest of River project because it responds to public comments asking about the project’s safety-notification and -action requirements should monitoring results exceed levels set by the EPA, including air quality.
At issue is a 2020 permit covering the remediation of the Housatonic River following GE depositing the now-banned, carinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the waterway for years. The permit—signed by then-representatives of Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge, as well as representatives from GE and the Environmental Protection Agency—stipulates that the most toxic materials will be carried out of the area, while the less contaminated sediment will be taken to a to-be-constructed Upland Disposal Facility (UDF) in Lee. Citing health and safety concerns, Lee residents have long opposed the agreement, and residents of the four other involved towns have taken issue with the agency ensuring that the transportation route for the dredged PCB-laden materials isn’t in conflict with their well-being.
On July 23, The Berkshire Edge sat down with Tagliaferro, EPA Public Affairs Specialist Jo Anne Kittrell, and EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Ashlin Brooks to better understand what the agency is now requiring of GE regarding these two plans, as well as the basis for its fact sheet.
The details: EPA response to GE Quality of Life Compliance Plan
Released on December 20, GE’s Quality of Life Compliance Plan outlines steps GE will take to minimize the potential negative impacts from the remediation project on local air quality, noise, odor, lighting, recreational activities, transportation, and roads, as well as communication strategies to keep stakeholders informed.
The plan includes dust-suppression methods—including spraying water to unpaved haul roads and material-staging areas—to minimize the level of dust. However, in the case of project dust that is observable but doesn’t necessarily meet a trigger level for action, the agency is now requiring GE to evaluate the problem using a “qualitative” standard, one that doesn’t line up with a specific numerical standard to determine if those issues are violative. A quantitative standard already exists for particulate matter.
“What we want to make sure, to the best of our ability and feasibility, is that live dust clouds are not leaving the work area [with] a qualitative standard that our inspectors can look at and their inspectors can look at and say, ‘this is too much dust blowing around the site and you need to implement more controls’ as opposed to a hard number,’” he said. “Just because [GE’s] particulate monitor in location X is not exceeding the trigger level, if we see excessive dust out there, we’re going to require [GE] to do something.”
As for what is “excessive,” Tagliaferro responded, “That’s why it’s qualitative, it’s hard to answer.”
The agency is also requiring GE to add a stop-work requirement when EPA-set levels of airborne PCBs are exceeded, giving the EPA the authority to approve GE’s remedial actions before its work can restart. Tagliaferro said this type of stop-work provision is included in non-Rest of River cleanup project proposals but was missing from the GE proposal and needed to be added.
Additionally, per the response, the EPA must now approve any project work that doesn’t occur between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. or on weekends and state or federal holidays. For the agency, an extension of hours might be allowable during the hydraulic pumping or transportation of material since the pumps used in the process must run 24 hours a day; otherwise, they must be drained and cleaned, which “isn’t practical day after day,” Tagliaferro said. “We just want to be in the loop so we know, and we can communicate to the town, ‘yes, they will be running pumps overnight,’” he said, adding that the situation may occur at the Woods Pond phase of the project.
Weekend work may also be approved at times, but subject to community events such as festivals. “If you have low flow in the river, you want to take advantage of good weather conditions or if there’s a big storm coming up,” Tagliaferro said. “It’s going to be dependent on the conditions.”
The agency is prompting GE to “strengthen” its provisions regarding assessing, maintaining, and repairing public roads anticipated to be used for transporting PCB materials. According to the 2020 settlement agreement, the company must perform a three-dimensional assessment of these roads, or 360-degree road imaging, Tagliaferro said. But, in the proposed plan, he said greater clarification of the technology to be used by GE was needed. “The plan was close but didn’t quite rise to the level to be in full compliance with that [requirement],” Tagliaferro said. “It wasn’t a complete omission by GE; we just thought there could be more detail on how that’s going to be done.”
The EPA response to the GE Quality of Life Compliance Plan can be found here.
The details: EPA response to GE Project Operations Plan
Released on January 25, GE’s Updated Project Operations Plan coverage includes site management, air monitoring, construction, and emergency procedures for the project.
Prompted by town officials in public comments, the EPA is requiring that GE coordinate and plan emergency-response drills depicting actions to be deployed during cleanup should a spill of PCB-laden materials occur, if requested by local municipalities.
“There’s been concern raised, ‘What happens if there’s a truck accident,’” Tagliaferro said. The action would involve GE participating in a drill or informational session as to its response should a spill occur or an accident happen at the UDF or during construction, with the EPA being included in the event, he said.
Additionally, the agency is requiring GE add a minimum of two baseline sampling rounds for PCB air levels prior to working in the remediation areas and at the UDF, and is also asking for more detail on the company’s monitoring of excess turbidity during the cleanup.
With residents voicing concerns over safety due to possible contact with contaminated materials, GE is being required to put in practice more measures to address this issue, including designating clean access roads, visually verifying contaminated soil and sediment has been removed from construction equipment, and monitoring a sample wiped from the possibly contaminated equipment leaving the site to ensure it is clear of PCBs.
“That’s one of our primary roles for oversight of this cleanup and every other cleanup we do,” Tagliaferro said. “We do have extensive contractor support and anticipate having daily oversight inspectors from our contractors supplemented by EPA employees when available. That’s one of our main goals is to make sure that GE complies with all elements of the work plans, and this is one of the key elements.”
Although the EPA won’t inspect and sign off on each truck in the process, he said the agency will “make sure the procedures are set up and that the site is monitored,” with GE having additional responsibilities to ensure correct performance. “So, there will be significant oversight of the operation,” Tagliaferro said.
The EPA response to GE Project Operations Plan can be found here.
EPA documents: UDF not a health threat from airborne PCBs
To help quash the concerns of Berkshire residents over airborne PCBs serving as a threat to their health, EPA officials provided a six-page release this month detailing its support for the safety of the remediation project.
“Air sampling for PCBs conducted over 20 years by both EPA and GE during past cleanups at the Site demonstrates that the Rest of River cleanup can be safely implemented,” the EPA “Rest of River Cleanup and the Upland Disposal Facility Will Not Pose a Health Threat from Airborne PCBs” document states. The agency also cites a 2003–2005 peer-reviewed human health risk assessment of air sampled south of New Lenox Road and off October Mountain Road that determined “no current human health threat from airborne PCBs from the Housatonic River.”
Tagliaferro said airborne PCBs create a risk to humans based on three evaluations: how often is the exposure to PCBs, the concentration of the PCBs, and the toxicity of PCBs relevant to national standards. Individuals are at risk from airborne PCBs only if exposure is at a high level and for an extended period, he said.
“Based on what we’ve done for 20 years, the PCB levels here are much lower [than other sites],” he said of Pittsfield’s Silver Lake and Mill Street. “So, you’re at a lower concentration to start with.”
According to Tagliaferro, the air monitoring around those locations didn’t show PCB levels exceeding EPA standards. “Exposure to these [Rest of River air monitoring levels] over many years would lead to a one in 100,000 increased risk of cancer above a person’s baseline risk,” the EPA document states. “A one-time exceedance of the Action Level would not result in increased cancer risks.”
The release cites the project’s safety protocols such as air sampling at the Rest of River construction area including at each construction area prior to starting work, as well as two back-to-back 24-hour monitoring tests at the beginning of the work, with more samplings weekly in each area while construction continues, as well as added monitoring with every new type of remediation activity. For the UDF, GE is required to take a baseline air PCB sampling during construction and when materials are deposited, with a similar protocol continuing periodically after the project ends.
Tagliaferro called the action levels factored into the project “very conservative.” Post-closure, he cited twice annually sample collections performed in July and September on capped Pittsfield landfills. “You have the air data, the monitoring data, and you have the risk evaluation,” Tagliaferro said. “Unless you are starting to see levels that are consistently over those notification and action levels, EPA’s experts say it’s safe, it’s not a threat.”
The document states trucks and rail cars carrying contaminated dredged materials will be covered, and work equipment decontaminated. Tagliaferro confirmed that tarps and bungee cords will be used to secure the materials on these trucks and rail cars.
“It’s a tarp—it comes down, it gets strapped on, and it gets tied down whether it goes on rail,” he said.
In the four years during which the EPA excavated the one-and-a-half-mile Pittsfield reach of the Housatonic River, “there were no exceedances of the health-based PCB Action Level and only one exceedance of the PCB Notification Level,” the EPA fact sheet states.
However, not every situation can be accounted for, Tagliaferro said. During the Pittsfield remediation, he said an automobile was dredged out of Silver Lake, coated with PCBs. When it was placed on a barge for off-site removal, high levels of airborne PCBs were found, and the excavating team realized that vehicle should have been secured and tarped, or covered, sooner. “You try to think of everything in advance, but that doesn’t mean that when you see a situation, you don’t reevaluate the situation,” Tagliaferro said.
The process is a balance between remediating as quickly as possible while maintaining safeguards. “To be honest, the quicker is the better for everyone,” Tagliaferro said. “You do everything you think is reasonable. If you see an elevated detection, you reassess.”
Although the fact sheet identified a routine for GE to notify the EPA should air PCB levels be exceeded, the document was void of a duty to notify town officials of the exceedance.
Tagliaferro responded that the EPA had contemplated GE be charged with the notification duty but decided that duty should belong to the agency. “This would be a chronic risk if exposed repeatedly to very high levels [of PCBs],” he said. “So, even though there may be an exceedance of the notification level, it’s not like that, in itself, poses a significant health threat. It would have to be repeated day after day after day at those levels.”
For that reason, a stop-work order isn’t required in the project should a notification be triggered but “is a signal that you need to look at things more closely,” Tagliaferro said. Under those circumstances, he said the EPA would notify the town within a day or two. “It’s not an emergency situation in our view,” Tagliaferro said. “It’s something that happens every day at every site in the country. We will let the towns know when those levels are exceeded so they are fully aware, but it’s not a panic or emergency situation.”
The EPA “Rest of River Cleanup and the Upland Disposal Facility Will Not Pose a Health Threat from Airborne PCBs” fact sheet can be found here.
