“From a practical standpoint, and from a health and safety standpoint, if we cap rather than bioremediate, there is virtually no impact on development schedule. This project has an incredible benefit for the entire community and entire region."
--- Tim Geller, executive director, Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire
Any time a state agency performs such an abrupt about face, it’s reasonable to suspect the presence of an unseen actor. Who got to the DEP? Consider this: the Log Homes site has another neighbor, the Housatonic River, which as we all know is the special responsibility of a certain Fortune 500 corporation.
While the Community Development Corporation is “committed to the bioremediation process,” it will do whatever it has to move ahead with the the construction of the 100 Bridge Street complex. That may mean “capping” –– or covering –– the polluted soil to eliminate exposure.
Great Barrington Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin said it will soon be a question of whether to continue the pilot bioremediation, cap the site, or do a combination of both. State Rep. Pignatelli said that it would be “great” if the pilot cleanup worked. “If not, we move on to the next thing.”
Eva V. Tor, MassDEP’s Deputy Regional Director of the Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup, said that all the data reviewed by her agency thus far is insufficient for the cleanup to continue on the brownfield site… particularly given the proximity of the site to sensitive populations and current uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of this remediation method.
The plan, now known as 100 Bridge, will — if all goes according to plan -- feature an expanded Berkshire Cooperative Market as an anchor business in what will be an eco-commercial retail, housing and green public space complex.
Bioremediation at the Log Homes site costs only a fraction of the traditional dredge-it-up and haul-it-away method of toxic waste management. Preliminary results should be available by the end of September.
If successful at the Log Homes site, bioremediation could revolutionize the way thousands of industrial parcels across the country are cleansed of pollutants.
