Italians are fascinated by Trump. Tuscany is very liberal, but even my more conservative friends here and in Sicily and Milan cannot understand why he continually changes his policies on a daily basis.
Ward says he wants to stay alert to potential consequences of future remediation and construction work at 100 Bridge St. in case “disturbances to the site could lead to enhanced pollution” of the Sheffield water supply.
If this decision holds strong against what will likely be a protracted legal fight from GE, the $613 million cleanup will go forward eventually, and the PCB-contaminated waste will be shipped out of state.
The 'What’s in Our Water?' forum will explore current challenges to the environment, the effects and potential risks to human health, and ways in which information is disseminated.
The GE-owned parcel at Rising Pond here — earmarked by the company for a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) dump --is zoned for residential use only, according to Great Barrington Town Planner Christopher Rembold, who said the town’s zoning regulations “do not allow an industrial-type use.”
Housatonic homeowners are now worried about their property values — not to mention potential health risks from a nearby dump — and prospective homebuyers are now saying they won’t buy in Housatonic.
“I feel that GE is just one in thousands of corporations that are doing the exact same thing to land and to rivers all across the world. We here have our small part to play in that big fight which is to stand up for our land and our water and the respect for humanity.”
--- Pooja Prema, an organizer of the Mega March against PCB dumps
A probable carcinogen, PCBs migrate, affecting life all over the world. Research indicates the chemicals can leach out of landfills and into soil as far as several miles beyond them.
In Boston, Alsop will deliver a letter he's carried from the Berkshires in a quest for a clean Housatonic River, free of the PCBs that GE dumped there years ago.
The Center for Food Studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock will hold its annual ThinkFOOD conference on Saturday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Kellogg Music Center.
“Instead of pouring money into attorneys that fight the Environmental Protection Agency, pour it into cleaning the river.”
-- Berkshire Natural Resources’ letter to General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
When he reaches Boston, Denny Alsop will tell state leaders that remote as Western Massachusetts may seem, it is the region where Boston derives its water supply. So it matters.
GE doesn’t want the Environmental Protection Agency telling it to ship the contaminated sludge from the Housatonic River to a certified remediation facility in Texas. It wants to drop it into three Berkshire landfills instead.
“It’s all coming to a point where I feel like I can do my little thing — a symbolic push — bringing attention to what all the warriors along this river have done and what they are doing. I’m the messenger not the hero.”
-- Denny Alsop
“We have before us a [cleanup] that allows significant concentrations and volumes of PCB-contaminated sediment, soils and water to remain in the water after completion of remediation activities…”
-- Rest of the River Municipal Committee, composed of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield
