Boston and Lee — Embroiled in efforts to halt a toxic-waste facility being constructed within Lee’s borders, town officials are embarking on a program to bring their advocacy to the state’s leadership in Boston.
On February 27, members of Lee’s Select Board and administration will join environmental attorneys, physicians, and citizens slated to speak at the “Save the Housatonic Rally” at Sam Adams Park, 6 Faneuil Hall Square, beginning at noon.
For decades, General Electric Company (GE) deposited the now-banned polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) from the company’s Pittsfield manufacturing plant into the Housatonic River, with the chemicals washing downstream, an issue as those ”forever” toxins don’t disintegrate. A 2020 agreement for the remediation of the Rest of River—the portion of the federal Superfund site that spans from the confluence of the river’s east and west tributaries in Pittsfield through Connecticut—mandated the dredged materials containing the highest level of PCB concentration be sent out of the area while the lower-level contaminants be deposited into a to-be-created upland disposal facility (UDF) in Lee. However, Lee officials and residents have long maintained that this agreement was made behind closed doors and is unsafe for the community but have so far failed in their legal attempts to overturn the plan. Instead, they have pushed Environmental Protection Agency representatives responsible for implementing the remedy to consider alternative remediation methods such as destroying the toxins in place.
According to Lee Select Board member Robert “Bob” Jones, who addressed the event during the group’s February 18 meeting, the upcoming program aims to “try to generate some interest in not only local press but regional press in Boston.” “Lee is a small town [in] the Berkshires, forgotten sometimes,” he said. “So, we’re going to go to them this time and see what we can do.”
Jones said the program’s goal is to have media outlets that haven’t covered the town’s plight engage in their advocacy. “Now the Town of Lee is asking GE to do the right thing: dredge and destroy the chemicals it dumped into the Housatonic,” according to a news release.
The rally site is less than a mile from Boston’s GE facility, and speakers will address the desire for “a permanent, durable clean-up solution for the polluted waterway,” the news release stated.
Environmental group Housatonic River Initiative (HRI) is sponsoring a coach bus trip to the event, with reservations available by contacting Town Administrator Christopher Brittain at (413) 409-5976. The bus is expected to depart at 8:30 a.m. and return at 4:30 p.m.
