BERKSHIRE RECORD . MARCH 18-24. 2016 ~---

Terry Cowgill Environmental activist Judith Herkimer pauses during her talk Tuesday evening at the Unitarian Church.

PCB foes want no truck with GE's toxic waste By Terry Cowgill

HOUSATONIC - About 250 people packed the Unitarian Church to weigh in on a proposal by General Electric to dump toxic waste in Housatonic and two other locations in southern Berkshire County.

Organized by the nonprofit Housatonic River Initiative, the gathering on Tuesday night was an attempt to galvanize public opinion against GE and pressure public officials on the state and federal levels to

\ put a stop to GE's plans to build dumps in Housatonic and other locations for the poly -chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) the company dumped from its Pittsfield plant into the river and will remove from the river after being ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to do so.

"The time has come to form a movement to stop these toxic dumps in Berkshire County," said Judy Herkimer of the Housa­tonic Environmental Action League based in Cornwall, Conn. ·

Tim Gray, who directs the Housatonic River Initiative, reviewehd the history be­hind the PCBs, which GE dumped legally into the river until the practice was banned in 1979.

GE is proposing to establish dumps for the material in Lenox Dale, near Goose Pond in Lee and on land adjacent to Rising Pond in Housatonic.

Th!=) company was permitted by the EPA

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PCB foes want Continued from Al

to dump PCBsrecentlydredged from the Pittsfield section of the river into an abandoned field in that city. The remainder of the project, to the Connecticut border and beyond, has been dubbed Rest of River.

Another option is for GE to truck the waste out of state or use alternative methods of treatment such as bioremedia­tion: It is estimated the former would cost between $200 mil­lion and $300 million more than burying it near where it is scheduled to be excavated from the river.

The HRI ha:s also been fight­ingfor a comprehensive cleanup ofGE'ssprawlingandnowmost­ly abandoned Pittsfield plant, the closure of GE's PCB bum facility, the removal of .PCBs from/contaminated residential

homes, businesses, schoolyards, and playgrounds. The HRI has also ·been demanding pubhc health studies for former GE workers and members of the

public whose homes were built on or near PCB-contaminated fill.

Gray explained that "Most politicians :i:un from this is­sue." And now he thinks the politicalaversiori.totheproblem will grow .since GE r.ecently announced the company was

moving its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston.

"I was so happyto see Smitty show up," Gray said to much applause, re:rerringtostateRep. William "Smitty'' Pignatelli, whowasstandingnearthefront door of the 125-year-old church but did not speak.

Nick Stanton, owner of the Stanton Home, afarmonNorth Plain Road, said he had done a great deal of research on the remediationpftoxicsubst~ces. Stanton and others noted that common sense dictates the placement of a dump with toxic substances near a river is counterintuitive.

Stanton suggested bioreme­diation as a way of dealing with the PCBs.Asimilarapproach,in whichcertainproteinsfacilitate the consumption of the toxins, was tried at the former New England Log Homes site at 100 BridgeStreettoremovedioxins. The project was eventually halted by the state Department ofEnvironmentalProtectionon the grounds that it was inef­fective. But Stanton insisted the process had not been given adequate time to work.

Tuesday night's meeting came on the heels of the re-

. lease of a letter from the Great

Barrington Select Board that came out strongly "against the

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toxic waste Housatonic's Rising Pond" and "supporting the EPA's direc­tive to remove the materials to be placed in an out-of-state licensed facility."

Great Barrington writer and Record columnist Mickey

Friedman, who advocated for an expensive process called thermal absorption to deal with the waste, said most of it would be shipped to Texas, if not dumped locally.

"PoorTexas, thoughinsome waystheydeserveit," Friedman quipped. ·

Others expressed concerns that, if shipped "out-of-state," the toxic material will inevitably wind up ina poorcommunity­most likely one of color - and that the problem would simply be transferred tothosewhodon't have the resources to fight it. Thosecommentsinvariablyelic­itedapplausefrom the audience.

There was talk of petitions, letter-writing campaigns, sit­ins at GE and trips to the Statehouse in Boston. In an ef­

fort to draw further attention to the issue, Stockbridge resident and outdoor enthusiast Denny Alsop will canoe from the Con­necticut border all the way to Boston. Alsop will. leave from Bartholomew's CobbleinAshley Falls at 1,1 a.m. March 21 and is expected to arrive in Boston onApril20.