Silver Lake

Silver Lake 2009 - Runoff from the PEDA Site Flowing to Silver Lake 2006 - GE's Silver Lake Capping Project Is Sending Sediments Into The Housatonic River
Runoff from the PEDA Site Flowing to Silver Lake - Oct 28, 2009 A citizen called BEAT to report seeing flooding of Silver Lake Boulevard with water from the PEDA site (under construction) flowing from the site across the road to Silver Lake. (See Google Map.) The PEDA site - eventually to be the William Stanley Business Park. PEDA = Pittsfield Economic Development Authority - created with General Electric money by the Consent Decree. The Consent Decree was signed on to for the City of Pittsfield by then Mayor Gerry Doyle and then City Council Chairman Tom Hickey. Tom Hickey received the well paying job of head of PEDA for many years after that. During that those years, no businesses signed on to come to the future William Stanley Business Park. BEAT went to take a look. The road was no longer flooded, but there was obvious erosion on the part of the parcel that fronts both East Street and Silver Lake Blvd. This flow should have been directed to a stormwater treatment basin, but instead is forming gullies leading to the paved curb cut, and then flowing across to Silver Lake. In addition, there was still runoff at the corner where the construction access road enters the site. Dirty water was flowing from the site, across the road to Silver Lake. Above - the front (toward East St) part of the site showing runoff coming down the hill causing erosion, then flowing down the pavement, and then (not pictured) across to Silver Lake. All this water should be captured by a stormwater management system - like a bioswale - and redirected into the huge detention pond nearby. What went wrong with the design? Above - runoff from the site where the construction access road is. Again, runoff flowed off the PEDA property and across Silver Lake Blvd. UPDATE - 10/29/09 - John Ziegler, Audit/Site Management Section Chief for the Western Regional Office of Mass. Department of Environmental Protection called. The person BEAT had sent the email to was out sick, but EPA contacted John to let him know of our concern (thank you Dean Tagliaferro). John said someone would be take a look at the site today (10/29/09) and DEP will let us know what action they take.
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. See pictures below.
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.