LEE — Stark divisions were evident Tuesday night as the Lee Selectboard voted down a motion 2–1 that would have instructed the town to begin the process of rescinding a municipal settlement with General Electric and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The agreement would net the town of Lee some $25 million while locating a dump housing PCB contaminants dredged from the Housatonic River at the former Lane Construction quarry, now known as the Upland Disposal Facility.
Selectboard member Bob Jones made a motion that the board move to implement two warrant articles, Articles 10 and 16, passed at Lee’s town meeting in October 2020. “We are the pilots, our constituents are our navigators: they set the course for us — we know where we should be going,” Jones said before making the motion. “It’s time we did our jobs.”
Article 10 included an appropriation of $50,000 for a legal defense fund for costs associated with withdrawing from the agreement, which was negotiated by Lee and four other South County towns as part of the Rest of River Municipal Committee.
Article 16 instructed the selectboard to rescind its support for the settlement and asks them to renegotiate the settlement to not include a dump site in Lee. Until now, the selectboard had not acted on either measure.
“All of us are baffled as to the apparent inaction of the then-selectboard,” Jones said.
“We gave you the instructions, then you didn’t follow those instructions. We feel it’s not really fair to us,” said Monica Ryan, a Lee town meeting representative. “We’ve given you the mandate … so why would you pick and choose?”
Many other representatives and citizens came to voice their frustrations and support Jones’ motion.
“I am here to tell you that this deal is terrible,” said Tim Gray, executive director of the Housatonic River Initiative (HRI), which is currently suing the EPA over the agency’s support of the agreement.
“The river will stay contaminated and one thing I will do before I die is I’ll make sure that 50 years from now everybody will remember who left this river to be contaminated,” Gray said.
After heated discussions within the selectboard and a longer period of public comment marked by shouting and anger, the motion failed with Selectman Sean Regnier and Chairwoman Patricia Carlino voting against the motion, citing concerns about the legal ramifications for withdrawing from the deal.
“There’s no legal precedent that has been pointed to; there’s no case law that I’m aware of that shows what would happen,” Regnier said, registering his disapproval with the motion. “I don’t think any court would agree with Lee against the EPA … it’s a losing battle.”
That led to outbursts from the audience with one attendant shouting, “Come on Sean!” — as Regnier voiced his opposition to the motion. In 2020, Regnier defeated longtime incumbent and supporter of the PCB agreement Thomas Wickham, vowing to rescind the agreement if elected.
Regnier has since reneged on that pledge, instead proposing an Oversight Committee that will observe the activities outlined in the agreement while also researching technologies to treat PCB contaminated soils.
During his presentation, Jones made an appeal to Regnier, asking him to follow through on his word. “You ran last year as an opponent of the dump,” Jones said. “I hope you’ll see this as an opportunity to make good on what was expected.”
“This isn’t all bad,” Regnier said, leading to more shouts and anger from the audience.
Jones also made an appeal to Carlino, imploring her to reconsider her position: “Changing one’s mind can result in very positive things … I want to work with both of you to right this situation. To say that we don’t like it, but have to live with it is not good governance.”
“It was never my intention to hurt the town of Lee,” Carlino said. “My whole family is here, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren … I know where we are right now with the settlement agreement.”
There was some support on the board for using the funds to hire a lawyer to examine the ramifications of rescinding the deal, but since the warrant article was worded in explicit terms directing the rescindment of the agreement, it ultimately couldn’t muster the support it needed.
“The motion dies,” Jones said in dismay after he was the lone member to vote for the motion. It’s not immediately clear what the next steps are. Lee’s annual town meeting, scheduled for June 24, has several warrant articles relating to the settlement agreement, all the result of a citizen’s petition.
Article 18 calls for a bylaw amendment that would ban the storage of EPA-classified hazardous and radioactive material, such as PCBs, within the town. Article 21 calls for a referendum to be held that would ask residents if they support the selectboard rescinding their approval of the agreement.
Jones was still determined to fight on. “I am disappointed,” he told The Edge. “We know more tonight than we did this morning.”
