Dorothy Amos Park
Fact Sheet
Dorothy Amos Park is located on a site that was once home to a junkyard. The junkyard was covered over and made into Dorothy Amos Park. The Park is on the West Branch of the Housatonic River.
Mid-1990s HRI & citizens of Pittsfield call for testing on the West Branch
On September 30, 1997, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a “Notice of Responsibility” to General Electric Co. (GE) because Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) were found on the property and needed to be removed.
From May to August of 1998, GE removed 3,800 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the Park and installed one ground water monitoring well. They did not remove contaminated soil from down the riverbank, nor in the river.
In 1999 the EPA performed tests for PCBs downstream of Dorothy Amos Park to the confluence with the East Branch of the Housatonic River. They found elevated levels of PCBs, which they presumed came from Dorothy Amos Park. So they performed more tests for PCBs on the riverbank and sediment in the river next to Dorothy Amos Park. They found sediment in the river that contained 7,630 parts per million (ppm) of PCBs. For comparison, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires residential properties to be remediated to no more than an average of 2 ppm in the soil. In the water of the river, the EPA set the fresh water criterion continuous concentration for PCB is 0.014 ppb and the human health criteria is 0.000064 ppb- that’s parts per Billion - 1,000 times less than ppm)
On December 8, 1999 the DEP ordered GE to submit a Preliminary Phase II Scope of Work for soil, sediment, and groundwater investigation.
In February 2000, GE submitted a Preliminary Phase II Scope of Work for the West Branch of the Housatonic River and agreed to pay DEP to have the work done.
In 2000, DEP’s contractor performed more sampling from just above Dorothy Amos Park all the way down to the confluence with the East Branch. They found sediments with 8,900 ppm in the river next to the Park and also one place downstream that had sediments with 60.5 ppm. Two groundwater monitoring wells were installed at Dorothy Amos Park.
January 2005, DEP issued their draft Investigation of Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) Contamination in the West Branch of the Housatonic River.
February 25, 2005, DEP sent GE a letter requiring them to submit a Scope of Work with in 30 days.
Well - two years later it appears that there is a real Scope of Work and the work should actually happen in 2007.
No such luck - three years later - it appears the work should actually happen in 2008.
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