Lee — The town has quietly dropped a lawsuit against the company Monsanto for its decades-long manufacturing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
Back on March 30, the town filed a lawsuit against the company for its manufacturing of PCBs. From 1932 until 1977, General Electric (GE) operated a Pittsfield transformer manufacturing complex, and the company allowed millions of pounds of PCB-laced oil to seep into the Housatonic River.
The production of PCBs was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1979. In 2000, GE was forced by the federal and state government to find ways to clean up the river. Back in February 2020, a controversial agreement was signed between Lee, EPA, GE, and other parties to clean up the river and dispose of the PCBs at a toxic waste dump in Lee. The agreement was signed by Thomas Wickham, who was then the chair of the Select Board. The town received $25 million as part of the agreement.
At a public forum in Egremont on June 26, State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D – Lenox) commented on the lawsuit.
In response to an article on the public forum that was published on June 28, Dan Costello, a consultant with Monsanto, wrote to The Berkshire Edge via email that the town had the case dismissed. Costello sent to The Edge a court order by United States District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni that granted the dismissal of the case on May 23. “We’d ask that you please update this story to reflect that this litigation is no longer an active case against Monsanto and that future reporting reflects this fact,” Costello wrote in his email.
In an email to The Berkshire Edge, Town Administrator Chris Brittain subsequently confirmed that the town requested the dismissal of the lawsuit. However, “…the lawsuit has been dismissed without prejudice which allows the town to refile it at the town’s discretion,” Brittain wrote. “The attorney litigating on behalf of the town requested we approve the temporary withdrawal of the lawsuit because he was facing a very serious family difficulty that required his total attention. The attorney will refile and continue the case as soon as his family’s health is back to normalcy.”
