Lenox — In a January 11 email to Environmental Protection Agency Program Manager Dean Tagliaferro, the Lenox Board of Health urged the agency to ask General Electric Company to rewrite its Proposed Transportation and Disposal plan released October 31. That plan heavily favored trucking as the transport method over rail for the Rest of River, the third segment of the Housatonic River to be remediated pursuant to a 2020 permit for the waterway’s cleanup following decades of GE depositing the now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the stream. The remediation project—including the affected towns of Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge—involves carrying the most toxic materials out of the area while leaving the less contaminated sediment dredged from the river in a to-be-constructed Upland Disposal Facility (UDF) in Lee.
Submitted to the EPA as a public comment to GE’s transportation plan, the Lenox correspondence cites the lack of an adequate discussion of rail as a mode of transporting the dredged PCB-laden soil and sediment to the UDF and beyond. The deadline for public comments to the plan is February 1, and the email additionally requested that the EPA extend that deadline to allow for “an in-depth study” of rail.
The Lenox correspondence follows a recent barrage of activity from area select boards—via a band of now six towns—and boards of health calling for the EPA and GE to investigate further the use of rail for transportation in the remediation project.
On November 30, Lenox residents approved a $100,000 one-time expenditure to fund engineering firm Weston and Sampson for consultation related to the cleanup. “Although transportation by rail was consistently mentioned favorably in previous iterations of plans for cleanup of the Rest of Housatonic River, the current plan does little beyond raising some objections to use of rail, primarily the need for physical improvements, access to privately owned land, possible increased truck trips, etc.,” the Lenox letter states. “[The current plan] did not appear to pursue the issue beyond the preliminary studies completed three years ago by the Housatonic Railroad Company. These studies concluded that transport by rail was feasible, including creating rail access to the UDF.”
The correspondence asks for more information that will compare the use of both trucks and rail and each mode’s effect on the environment and community health and safety. The Lenox document also requests that a traffic study be conducted to evaluate the impact of the projected truck transportation on the area during its peak summer tourist season.
Submitted to local and national government officials, the letter acknowledges that GE may be remiss in funding a rail study and implores state and federal delegates to pick up the slack, identifying resources that can be used to implement such a project. “GE’s lack of willingness to utilize additional funding is not the sole reason to determine if rail is not feasible,” the email states, adding that the November 28 GE presentation fell flat to the ears of attendees anxious to hear what will be done to protect their communities given the proposed transportation route through the Berkshires. “It is evident that there was not much thought into presenting any information or data regarding studies that should have been done on the environmental impact for the town of Lenox.”
Tri-Town Board of Health Executive Director James J. Wilusz, who signed the Lenox letter, encourages other local boards of health to take similar actions and submit their comments prior to the deadline. “The more voices, the more representative we’ll be,” he told The Berkshire Edge.
When asked for comment, EPA Press Officer Jo Anne Kittrell said in an email that the agency does not comment on public input submissions. The EPA will evaluate all public input before making its final determination whether to approve the GE transportation plan, approve it with conditions, or wholly disapprove the plan, she said.
