To the editor:
The Housatonic River—we all know it; we all love it; we all say the same thing about it: Do not get in, and do not eat any fish you catch. The Housatonic was once a source of food, a mode of transportation, for the Mohican natives who lived throughout Berkshire County. But the river’s history has been forever diverted. How?
If you are driving in Pittsfield, going up Massachusetts Route 9 on Merrill, what remains of the General Electric (GE) plant lies in plain view as a field of desolate and abandoned infrastructure. From 1907, GE’s Pittsfield plant was a hub and heart of Berkshire innovation and industry. At the height of its success in the 1940s, the plant employed over 13,000 residents from Pittsfield—at a time when the city’s population reached only 50,000. The plant produced transformers, and these transformers needed to be cooled. GE’s preferred coolant? A substance called Pyranol—that just so happens to be a PCB.
A PCBs are man-made chemicals that cause immune-system suppression when ingested or exposed to them. They have been banned in the United States since 1979. PCBs are fat soluble, and they can be ingested, inhaled, and picked up through physical contact. Throughout GE’s time in Pittsfield, and before the ban, PCBs were released into the environment through pipe leakages and dumping of hazardous waste. The amount of Pyranol released into the Housatonic River is unknown; GE estimates that there could be 70,000 pounds of PCBs currently left in the river. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the true number could be closer to 600,000 pounds—even after extensive cleanup efforts.
Now, the question arises: What next? PCB pollution, if left unchecked, will cause adverse and irreversible effects on the health of Berkshire County residents. We deserve to live freely in a county with access to clean water—and peace of mind that a situation similar to this will never happen again. Currently, a plant to house hazardous material pulled from the Housatonic is being proposed in Lee. It is up to the informed residents of our county to seek out and advocate for change that benefits us, and not up to the corporations through which this problem has been realized. Educate, investigate, advocate—for this PCB pollution does not just affect our beloved river: It affects you.
Kaisa Montondeaux Peacock
Egremont
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