To the editor:
The recent advice given by Peter Most to the Town of Lee, and perhaps many others who have spent a lifetime battling to restore the polluted Housatonic River, is to throw in the towel because it is legally pointless to continue fighting. I think he is wrong, though perhaps not for the same reasons.
Recent EPA measurements from the northern Hudson, where the first dredging began 20 years ago, show that PCB levels in fish and sediment are at best partly reduced in some areas, and not much in others. If towns had $40 million for an army of lawyers, we could ask them if this is a good deal. But we already know that this is not right, and that is what matters. The removal of the PCBs was inherent in any deal. Has GE been holding up their end of the deal? They did this to us. The right thing is to fix it, not fight us.
After all these years, it is not really an agreement in the end. Much of the negotiation with GE was done in secret, in some towns by appointed, not-elected town representatives. These “representatives” reported back to the select boards (in some cases, not). The structured “negotiations” were apparently designed to keep the residents of the river corridor in the dark. Minutes of negotiation meetings remain undisclosed through the invocation of executive session. To add to the insult, towns routinely kicked in thousands of dollars annually for a seat at a table that essentially excluded all but one of their citizens, who was apparently sworn to secrecy.
Mr. Most tells us it is time to move on. I disagree. Lee had the guts to stand up, a forlorn hope storming impenetrable walls, calling out for the right thing to be done. Mr. Most is wrong to subject Lee to ridicule for this, in my opinion. Done deal? I don’t think so. This deal doesn’t count except for the lawyers involved. Show us all a clean Hudson River, a clean Housatonic. Sixty-four billion in GE profits last year. Lee, keep doing what is right. No other town has fought for us like you have.
Bruce Blair
Stockbridge
Click here to read The Berkshire Edge’s policy for submitting Letters to the Editor.
