GE's Silver Lake Capping Project Is Sending Sediments Into The Housatonic River
Silver Lake is heavily polluted with PCBs. GE's solution is to put a layer of sand on the bottom of the Lake to keep the PCBs in place. Here is a photo of the site and some of the equipment being used to apply the sand to the lake bottom. According to GE, the sand cap will hold PCBs in place on the lake bottom because the sand cap does not move.
BEAT Photo	This photo was taken during the rainstorm of October 28, 2006. The brown color is due to a heavy load of sediment. The bank is stabilized quite well. The inflows were relatively clear. The only other source for the sediment is the lake bottom itself.

BEAT Photo	This is a photo of Silver Lake's outflow into the Housatonic River. BEAT believes this sediment is a direct result of GE's work in Silver Lake and may actually be caused by the rainstorm of October 28 causing the cap to be disturbed and migrate to the River. The smell of PCB oil was quite noticeable at the point from which this photo was taken.
	This photo by Dave Gibbs, President of Housatonic River Initiative, makes it clear that the inflow was not the source of the sediment. The water entering the lake from the inlet can be seen as a wedge of clearer water. (Put your mouse on the photo to identify the wedge of incoming water.)

This situation was called to our attention by members of the Housatonic River Initiative. Members of HRI and BEAT went to the lake together to investigate. BEAT reported the situation to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They are investigating. We'll keep you posted.

Update: October 30, 2007- An EPA spokesperson contacted HRI and BEAT to say that the sediment is organic matter that is part of the cap. BEAT asked how the EPA came to this determination. They will get back to us. Again, we'll keep you posted.

Update: November 2, 2007 - Silver Lake was muddy again - this time no rain. Again, the water coming in through the northwest culvert was clear. A silt curtain had been installed across the outlet area, but the flow out of the lake into the Housatonic River was once again muddy.

Update: The EPA still believes that this mud going into the Housatonic River from the capping of Silver Lake is not a problem in and of itself (BEAT believes that any other entity causing so much sediment to go into the river would receive an Enforcement Order). Further, EPA does not see this as any indication that capping is not working properly or a bad idea. We disagree.

NOTE: BEAT has been pressing regulators to measure flow out of Silver Lake so that we may determine the rate at which Silver Lake dumps PCBs into the Housatonic River (upstream of the cleanup). To date, regulators have been unwilling to make this measurement.

UPDATE: Some time in 2007, the flow out of Silver Lake began being monitored.

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