November 19, 2005
Valley Mill Has Found A New Location For Their Operation!
Here’s a link to the history of our successful campaign to stop this project.
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Here’s an update, posted October 8, 2008
The Berkshire Environmental Action Team was formed about 6 years ago in response to the problems caused by an ineffective Pittsfield Conservation Commission. Actually, we felt at the time that the commission was working to circumvent the Wetlands Protection Act so that favored projects would be allowed to proceed. One of the solutions implemented by BEAT was to bring television cameras into the commission’s meetings and to file in rapid succession a number of requests for information under Massachusetts’ freedom of information act (Public Records Law) that made it clear that we were paying attention. For a while, all went well (relatively). But recently, BEAT has noticed a change in the meetings of the conservation commission; basically, if you blink, you miss them. Commission meetings, which begin at 6:00, used to go until 10pm or later. Now they are often over in less than an hour. We have reason to believe that the shortened meetings are a result of the commission choosing not to review projects in their jurisdiction.
On January 31, 2003 an article entitled “State to require impact report on waste transfer station plan” appeared in The Berkshire Eagle. For most of the people living around the proposed site, this was the first time they had heard that “Valley Mill Corp. of Lee planned to construct a 12,600-square-foot processing building, a two-story office building, a truck scale, an access road and a rail spur for the facility, which would handle up to 250 tons a day of construction and demolition debris, including asphalt, brick, concrete, wood and scrap metal.”
A neighborhood representative contacted BEAT. There were a number of environmental regulations (not to mention some points of common sense) that should have killed this project at its inception. But this being Pittsfield, the project not only survived, but the applicant for the building permit was none other than former mayor Gerald Doyle. With the help of BEAT, the neighborhood organized, and the state Department of Environmental Protection eventually put a stop to the project on environmental grounds.
But now this issue has resurfaced. It seems that the owners of the property have again decided to build on the site. You might ask if the new proposal is, this time, within state and federal regulations, and that would be a good question. Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer. The project, although it is at the same site that previously was determined to be within the jurisdiction of the Pittsfield Conservation Commission, has been issued a building permit without going before the commission.
Now, you might say that this is not the commission’s fault. The building inspector is supposed to notify the commission when projects look like they may affect wetlands, and this is true; at least to some extent. Pittsfield used to have a conservation agent who would actually take the initiative to drive around town to make sure there were no violations of the Wetlands Protection Act. She was fired by former Mayor Gerald Doyle (see above). Today we have been told that the building inspector responsible for granting the permit was reprimanded. But you have to wonder if the conservation commissioners, including the city’s conservation agent, wondered at all why so few projects were coming before them for the past six or seven months; especially after BEAT asked for an explanation.
BEAT has asked for a meeting with city officials to discuss the matter.