In Housatonic River Deal With GE, Towns Agree To Toxic Waste Dump In The Berkshires

A stretch of the Housatonic River. (Nancy Eve Cohen/NEPR)

After more than a year and a half of mediation, the U.S. EPA New England office, General Electric and cities and towns along the Housatonic River have agreed to dispose some toxic PCB sediment at a site near the Lee-Lenox line, about 1,000 feet from the river. But not all participants in the mediated settlement agree with the decision.

An event marking the announcement took place Monday afternoon in Lenox, right next to the Housatonic River and Woods Pond – which has high volumes of sediment contaminated with PCBs.

GE polluted the river with PCBs for decades from its former transformer plant in Pittsfield. The EPA now says PCBs can cause a “multitude of serious adverse health effects” in the reproductive, endocrine, immune and nervous systems. The agency classifies PCBs as a probable human carcinogen.

The agreement calls for the “most contaminated waste” dug up from the river, its banks and floodplains to be disposed of out of state. GE will choose from about a dozen regulated facilities, all of which are outside Massachusetts.

Material with “lower levels of waste” would be dumped in a disposal facility to be built by GE on the site of a former gravel pit on the Lee-Lenox line.

This disposal plan, which the EPA is calling a “hybrid” approach, marks a reversal for the agency and the towns. The EPA had previously argued that all PCB-laden waste should be shipped out of state. GE, which is on the hook for the cleanup costs, objected.

Read the rest of this story at NEPM’s website.