Lee — Following a recent interview with EPA officials detailing the Housatonic River remediation history, specifications and future deadlines, Lee Select Board Chair Robert (Bob) Jones spoke with The Berkshire Edge to comment on the agency’s statements. Jones is also the town’s representative to the Rest of River Municipal Committee, as well as to the Tri-Town Board of Health.
The discussions stem from General Electric (GE) depositing toxic waste and industrial chemicals—particularly polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—from its Pittsfield electric transformer plant into the Housatonic River for decades. In 1979, the Environmental Protection Agency banned the production of PCBs, and in 2000, prompted by the EPA and other government agencies, GE began its process of cleaning up the river. A 2020 agreement between five Berkshire towns, GE, and the EPA stated that an upland disposal facility (UDF), or toxic-waste site, would be established in Lee. That agreement has long been contested by Lee officials and residents who have argued that the negotiations were conducted in private, with other options available for routing the PCB-laden soil and sediment away from the waterway.
“The original [Lee] Select Board signed off [on the 2020 agreement] behind closed doors,” Jones said. “Since then, those members are gone, and we’ve been transparent. We’re open with our constituents. The other [five] towns, not so much.”
For Jones, no new details came to light in the September 11 article, and he has been following the Housatonic River contamination story for more than 40 years, long before he was on the dais.
“I think that the decision to have a single disposal facility in Lee was a foregone conclusion,” he said. “I think that any conversation about two or three possible locations [for the UDF] was not a serious one.”
Jones said communication between Lee and the four other towns in the decision-making process has stalled. “Nobody wants to make a peep because the other towns feel like they’ve dodged a bullet, which is why they don’t want to talk to Lee,” he said. “But, ultimately, everybody’s going to pay for it if this landfill goes in over an aquifer … These are all unaddressed issues and we’re trying to force that conversation.”
Jones decried outreach efforts made by the EPA in conjunction with the Housatonic River remediation. The Environmental Protection Agency Housatonic River Coordinating Council (CCC)—including members from GE, the EPA, the Department of Environmental Protection, and Housatonic River Watershed protection groups—meets quarterly to discuss issues surrounding remediation efforts.
The Housatonic Rest of River Municipal Committee was created in 2013 to push for increased EPA cleanup of the waterway, with its members appointed by their respective five Berkshire town governments, the same municipalities that signed the 2020 agreement. The Rest of River is the third segment of the Housatonic River to be remediated, from the confluence of its east and west branches from Pittsfield to Connecticut.
“I don’t think that the select boards, the Rest of River [Municipal] Committee, the residents of the towns really have any real sway in the decisions that are being made by GE and the EPA, primarily by GE,” Jones said. “I think most residents should understand it’s GE that’s running the show. They came up with the plan and the EPA are simply helping them to facilitate the plan. And the rest is damage control and trying to make this as palatable as possible for the communities.”
The 2020 agreement was structured “to do just that,” according to Jones. “It was to keep the public in the dark,” he said of the document. “You had select boards that were sworn to secrecy.”
The issue of transporting the excavated PCB-laden materials from the Housatonic River has never been adequately addressed, Jones said, with rail being an option that should be considered. “The trucking issues have not yet been faced by the towns, and I think when the residents of the towns figure out where this stuff is going and how it’s going to be transported, there’s going to be a lot of unhappy people,” he said. “I think the trucking is going to be the spark that wakes people up.”
If rail is a possibility for transporting the material, Jones opined that the plan should be to remove all the excavated soil and sediment out of the area.
“Rail is much, much cheaper,” he said. “It’s much more efficient. You could fit eight dump truck loads into a rail car. Why would you have trucks running up and down the streets of Berkshire County?”
The Tri-Town Health Department—Berkshire County’s regional health department that oversees Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge—voted to offer the EPA or another entity related to the Housatonic River remediation the opportunity to present information to the group regarding the site and transportation plan. Their September 11 discussion focused on comparing truck to rail transportation modes for the matter excavated from the waterway, with safety questions centered on truck bed liners, tailgate seals and tarps, as well the condition of the roads the vehicles will travel.
“They’re going to put health and safety first, and they’re looking at it the way that we’re looking at it: This just doesn’t make sense,” Jones said of the Department’s perspective. “It just doesn’t make sense to have trucks running up and down the streets for 10 to 15 years carrying hundreds of thousands of truckloads full of toxic waste.”
Jones said he is looking forward to seeing the work that the Department does regarding the UDF and excavated material transportation.
Despite this summer’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruling that quashed efforts by local environmental groups, including the Housatonic River Initiative (HRI), for a review of the 2020 remediation plan, Jones hasn’t given up fighting the toxic waste facility slated for his town. “I still am quite optimistic about the options that are out there,” he said. “We’re still trying to educate the public, and we certainly—while HRI’s case is finished as far as I know—there are still other legal remedies that we are exploring.”
