The highly contaminated site, having sat idle and an eyesore in a mostly residential area–and with groundwater contaminated with PCPs right next to the Housatonic River–is wearing patience thin.
The 8-acre parcel on the Housatonic River has sat for more than 20 years, scraggly and undeveloped, and is still loaded with chlorinated organic compounds like dioxins and PCPs. The site’s owner, Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDC), will hold a public information meeting at the Mason Librarytoday (Wednesday, Jan. 4), at 5:30 p.m. to provide current plans for the site and gather public input.
In a letter to Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire, MassDEP wrote that, while the plan to remove all contaminated soil from both the Housatonic riverfront and from the area for an affordable housing development is “protective of human health and the environment,” the relocation of that soil to other parts of the site may be harmful.
The permit split raised concerns that the 45 housing units would sit alone up against the wastewater treatment plant, with 6 acres of toxic soil either left there or remediated in phases.
The romantic vision of closer-to-nature of log homes turned into a toxic nightmare for Great Barrington where the town and the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire had to deal with the demise of New England Log Homes that processed timber on an 8-acre site on Bridge Street.
