Dorothy Amos Park river remediation will have public meeting first - not yet scheduled

The remediation of the sediment from the West Branch of the Housatonic River and its riverbanks near Dorothy Amos Park on West Street in Pittsfield should begin sometime in 2008.

As of the end of June, the General Electric Company (GE) has obtained their Environmental Notification Form certificate and National Pollution Discharge Elimination Prevention System (NPDES) permit. They still need their Water Quality permit, Chapter 91 permit, and an Order of Conditions (permit) from the Pittsfield Conservation Commission.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and GE will hold a public meeting to inform the neighborhood and anyone else who is interested about the project. The City of Pittsfield expects this meeting to be held in Riverview West community meeting room, but the date and time have not been set.

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Unkamet Brook area - what a mess!

The Citizens Coordinating Council (CCC) will get a separate presentation on the Unkamet Brook area - the area that is still loaded with toxic waste and PCBs through which Unkamet Brook flows before emptying into the Housatonic River UPSTREAM of the entire "cleanup" so far - and upstream of the proposed Rest of River cleanup. So there are still PCBs and other toxic chemicals flowing into the Housatonic River up stream of all the work done so far.

When asked why Unkamet Brook wasn't done first, because it was at the top of the pollution flow, Susan Svirsky said that EPA was waiting for the City of Pittsfield because the City is going to be working further upstream in Unkamet Brook and they wanted to coordinate with the City. They will have a meeting with the City soon. BEAT would comment that this coordination had absolutely nothing to do with why the EPA didn't require GE to start with Unkamet Brook. As Dean Tagliaferro of EPA said, it had to do with cleaning non-GE-owned lands first. When the City proposed work on Unkamet Brook a year or two ago, BEAT contacted the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to make sure the work would be coordinated with the GE/EPA/DEP work on Unkamet Brook. We were afraid that the work the city was proposing might alter the flow of Unkamet Brook through the contaminated area and release even more contamination into the Housatonic River. At the time GE was not required to even measure the flow of Unkamet Brook. Now they are, thanks to environmental groups requests.

The Unkamet Brook area is a mess. GE will divide this 140 acre area into two parts to do the remediation. Part of the area has numerous buildings (General Dynamics, Sabic, and the US Army). Part is mostly wetlands, the brook, an old toxic landfill.

There is Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL) = PCB laden oil - that is being and will need to be extracted from the groundwater. Currently GE is extracting about 100 - 150 gallons per year of NAPL in this area. There are different standards for how clean the groundwater needs to be depending on whether it is near a building or flows to the Housatonic River.

The plan is to cap the old toxic landfill. Numerous members of the CCC commented that this is a very bad idea. BEAT would like to point out that this will be yet another capped toxic landfill in Pittsfield that is in a wetland whose water eventually flows to the Housatonic River. Because the wetland's water eventually flows to the Housatonic River, GE is required to remediate the wetland to a lower (fewer PCBs) standard, but the land fill stays.

Part of Unkamet Brook will be rerouted.

There will be much more discussion about Unkamet Brook Area in the future!

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Silver Lake - Toxic Fish - USFWS won't do habitat restoration

US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) gave a presentation on Silver Lake. USFWS will be removing all the largest fish from Silver Lake - these large fish are so contaminated with PCBs that they will be disposed of out-of-state at a toxic waste facility. Also, all non-native fish such as goldfish and carp will be removed.

USFWS refused to do any habitat restoration because they would have been liable if the cap failed because of the restoration and they felt it was likely that the plants would penetrate the cap. (Which is what the environmental groups said all along!) This lack of habitat restoration will require yet another modification to the Consent Decree - and yet everytime the environmental groups want a change to better protect the environment or the people of Pittsfield or those who live near or use the Housatonic River, we are told that any change would not be possible because everything is spelled out in the Consent Decree!

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Pittsfield Generating Plant was sold, but not the land

The former Pittsfield Generating Plant was sold, but GE still owns and is liable for the land the plant sits on. See related story.

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GE Corrective Measures Study Comments now on line

EPA has now put all the public comments they received up on-line on the website. You can also view the Corrective Measures Study (CMS) there - the CMS is GE's proposal for remediating the Rest of the River. Much more to come on this story.

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CCC meeting notes in addition to those above

Hill 78 is now 50% capped. The entire east side is full and capped - there is still approximately 15,000 cubic yards of capacity left on the west side for more material as long as it has fewer than 50 parts per million (ppm)of PCBs and is not considered hazardous for other reasons. The sewer and stormwater pipes that ran UNDER Hill 78 have been filled and new lines installed to run around the toxic waste dump. However, the stormwater line empties into a swale that eventually leads to the Housatonic River. BEAT would have preferred that GE be forced to include the new stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) to treat the storm water on site.

There are some areas in the region of Hill 78 between New York Ave, Merrill Road, and General Dynamics that will have more soil removed. One is near New York Ave, the rest are farther east.

More land will be turned over to the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority (PEDA). Six building still need to be demolished. Some of this material will be reused on site so that PEDA will not need to bring in clean fill. The material will have less than 1ppm. The material will be crushed to PEDA's specifications of less than 2" diameter. Other material if less than 50 ppm will go to Hill 78. The rest will go out-of-state.

Buildings in the 60s complex will be removed next year and the site will be remediated. GE estimates they will remove 16,000 cubic yards of material. The 200 foot riverfront area will be "restored" as a buffer - however it will be seeded as a grass buffer, not shrub or tree. This appears to be because there is a cap covering more toxic waste in the riverfront area, so tree or shrub roots could compromise the cap.

Work should begin on some Dalton Ave properties in July 2008.

Work should begin on Commercial Street in fall 2008.

Springside Reservoir - empty, no sediment found to sample. Old 1910 drawing show the pipes from the reservoir. The pipes haven't been used since the 1940s. In 2002, the pipes were plugged back to Building 31.

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Pittsfield Harvest Farmers' Market

EVERY Thursday from June to November, the Pittsfield Harvest Farmers' Market happens on the 400 block of North Street in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts, between St. Joe's Church and the Senior Center, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Rain or Shine!
 
Please come out and support the farmers that maintain our county as the beautiful working landscape it is! The Harvest Market will be a jolt of vibrancy to our downtown every Thursday afternoon during the growing season. In order for it to be successful, we need Pittsfielders and those from the hinterlands to show up and buy some produce. Let's prove to these farmers that Pittsfield is ready to eat local. So, leave the following items off your grocery market list, and come to the Harvest!
 
As the summer progresses the bounty will only grow (including meats, cheeses, and all the veggies you can imagine), but for now plan on finding the following goods:
 
- Greens (many varieties), Spinach, Basil, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Radishes, Jam, Bread, Flowers, Seedlings, Pies and Desserts, Cheeses, and more!
 
It all comes from the fields and kitchens of your fellow Berkshire citizens: Jaeschke Fruit & Flower Center, Taft Farm, Fallon Farm, Overmeade Farm, Berkshire Harmony Farm, Cricket Creek Farm, River Valley Farm, Nobles Farm, Holiday Farm, Blue Shrooms Mushrooms at Indigo Farm, Pittsfield Rye Bakery, and A. W. Confections.

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Local Student Film with an Environmental Message

This June, the first annual Berkshire Blossom Film Festival took place at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and offered a 24-hour student filmmaking competition.  Miss Hall's students Charlotte Crane (17), Eliza Chase (17), Caroline Barry (16), Missy Mattoon (17), and Alexa Green (17) entered the competition with their short film Slingshot Sally, starring Charlotte Crane in the title role alongside various friends and family.

Watch the movie.

The required elements for the contest were released at 10 AM on Saturday, June 7, and entries were due by 10 AM on Sunday.  All films required an environmental or activist focus, a commercial business in the Berkshires, the line "Hey, Jack, where's the green?" and the use of either an egg, banana, or twinkie.  The idea for Slingshot Sally had been hatching for about two years, and once the parameters were released the girls worked in the required elements and started shooting by 3 PM.  Shooting lasted until about midnight, when Chase and Green's all-night editing session began.  The DVD was burned at 9 AM Sunday, and was turned into the Colonial by 10 AM.  

Slingshot Sally ended up winning the first prize, much to the surprise of the crew.  Alexa Green said, "The contest was great because it allowed students to really look at environmental problems and solutions, both on a worldwide and local scale.  The films were all really insightful, plus the 24-hour rush is always fun."

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MassHighway must come up with a plan to cleanup stormwater runoff (story from theEnvironmental League of Massachusetts)

In a recent landmark court case filed by environmentalists, a federal court judge ruled that the Massachusetts Highway Department violated federal clean water laws by failing to develop an adequate stormwater cleanup plan for its 2,500 miles of urban roads and bridges.

Runoff from storms picks up road surface pollutants, including oil and grease, toxic metals such as zinc, nickel, lead, as well as salt and other de-icing chemicals. These pollutants have been flowing into rivers, streams and lakes, affecting the health of the entire ecosystem.

As a result of the federal ruling, the Massachusetts Highway Department must now commit to a two-year schedule for adopting a revised stormwater pollution cleanup plan, and must also move quickly to address pollution hot spots, such as in Lancaster and the Charles River watershed.  

The court ruling was praised as a landmark decision and a victory for environmentalists and the citizens of Massachusetts by CLF (Conservation Law Foundation), which played a significant role in bringing this issue to legal resolution.

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Which switch saves more gas?

A story on NPR had the following question:
Which saves more gas: trading in a 16-mile-a-gallon gas guzzler for a slightly more efficient car that gets 20 mpg? Or going from a gas-sipping sedan of 34-mpg to a hybrid that gets 50 mpg?

You might be tempted to do the following analysis:
16-mile-a-gallon traded in to get a 20-mile-a-gallon is an improvement of 4-mile-a-gallon
34-mile-a-gallon traded in to get a 50-mile-a-gallon is an improvement of 16-mile-a-gallon

It looks like getting the hybrid is 4 times more worthy, but is this the right analysis to be doing?

Here is a different way to look at the problem. One that gives a better picture of the difference in fuel use.

For the same four vehicles, how many gallons per hundred miles does each get?
16-mile-a-gallon uses 6.25 gallons to go 100 miles
20-mile-a-gallon uses 5.00 gallons to go 100 miles
34-mile-a-gallon uses 2.94 gallons to go 100 miles
50-mile-a-gallon uses 2.00 gallons to go 100 miles

So if you trade in the 16-mile-a-gallon to get a 20-mile-a-gallon you save 1.25 gallons for every 100 miles you drive, whereas trading in the 34-mile-a-gallon to get a 50-mile-a-gallon saves only 0.94 gallons for every 100 miles.

The point is that if cars gas mileage figures were in gallons per hundred miles, rather than miles per gallon, it would give us a better idea of how to compare fuel efficiency.

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Proposed Pittsfield Municipal Airport Expansion Less Expansive

According to the Berkshire Eagle, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decided to narrow the immediate scope of work at Pittsfield Municipal Airport. The FAA cited finite available funding for airports and rising construction costs in announcing its decision. Construction costs are going through the roof! BEAT believes it is unwise and unfair to put so much money into this airport project, which has a huge "carbon footprint" for the number of people served, when the money could be much better spent elsewhere.

The Berkshire Eagle didn't mention anything that was outlined at the recent Pittsfield Municipal Airport Commission meeting* -  that in order to satisfy the deficiencies listed in the March 28, 2008 Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) letter they would reduce infringements on the Wampanum Brook watershed. This was a big shift in project scope which consequently reduced the runway extension by 200' and eliminated the RAILS system (Runway Alignment Illumination Sytem) which would have extended 1000' past the present lighting system through wetlands.

The airport may still install the RAILS system at a later date. BEAT urge's DEP to require this possible future project to be looked at now to avoid "segmentation" of this project. Segmentation, or only proposing part of a project at a time, was used in the past by unscrupulous developers, as a way to avoid certain environmental laws. DEP has since put a stop to that practice.

BEAT does not believe the airport should expand beyond the existing footprint. Albany is, according to the City of Pittsfield's Pittsfield Municipal Airport's web page, 38 miles from Pittsfield. Long and international flights should leave from Albany. The existing footprint with EMAS systems could accommodate much of the same traffic much of the time - just not fully loaded with fuel on very hot or slippery days.

* You can watch the PMA Commission meeting on Pittsfield Community Television's (PCTV) website. Click Watch now.

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Clean Up Underway at 50 East Mill st., Pittsfield, Mass.

A coordinated clean up effort by local, state and federal agencies is working to excavate lead contaminated soil around a fire-damaged vacant mill building at 50 East Mill Street in Pittsfield, Mass. The work is being coordinated between the U.S. EPA, along with the Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and the City of Pittsfield.   

Demolition of the former mill building present at the site was completed this past May, allowing cleanup crews to more safely excavate and remediate the soil contamination.

In October of 2004 a fire swept though the vacant mill formerly present on site, leaving significant structural damage. Much of the building had collapsed as a result of that initial fire and there was noticeable compromise to the building’s metal support beams.  
This past September of 2007, the mill building suffered an additional but smaller fire causing further damage making the area unsafe for cleanup crews. There were two buildings present at the site, one was the vacant mill and the second was a garage however the garage is not planned for demolition at this point in time. While both buildings had been vacant, site investigators had noted signs of illegal trespassing, further prioritizing that the remainder of the damaged mill be taken down.

Demolition debris and contaminated soil are scheduled for removal by the end of June. The excavated soil will be taken off site by truck, to a CERCLA (Superfund) licensed landfill. The site is located in a predominantly residential neighborhood within a mile of downtown Pittsfield; however EPA, MassDEP and the City of Pittsfield are taking appropriate safety precautions for the surrounding community and do not expect any negative impact to nearby residents. 

More information:

- EPA emergency removal work: (epa.gov/region1/superfund/er)

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Seventh Modification to the Consent Decree

Click here to read the seventh modification to the Consent Decree (pdf) . The modification allows GE's Capital, a subsidiary of GE, to sell the Co-generation Facility located on GE property to Maxim Power. The modification stipulates that GE will remain responsible to implement their obligations under the Consent Decree. GE is not selling any of the land to Maxim Power; they are selling the business and the physical plant and will grant land leases to Maxim Power. Maxim Power is a large utility that own and operates numerous power plants in North America.

BEAT asked about the testing of the well water that this facility uses because General Electric had injection wells that they used to dispose of toxic chemicals many years ago. Here is EPA's response to our question:

[T]he g[round] w[ater] data for the supply well at the co-generation facility is included in the semi-annual groundwater reports submitted by GE for Groundwater Management Area 3. The recent GMA-3 Reports are on EPA's web page. The supply well is refered to as ASW-5. Attached is the
link to the latest semi-annual groundwater report. The data for ASW-5 is in Appendix C, which begins on page 149 of the pdf and goes through
page 153 of the pdf. Data is included from June 1996 through December 2007. Groundwater samples are collected twice per year. The data
shows that PCBs have never been detected and that low levels of trichloroethene have been detected.
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