{"id":19628,"date":"2015-08-07T09:50:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T13:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/?page_id=19628"},"modified":"2016-10-29T12:18:54","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T16:18:54","slug":"silver-lake","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

(back to our main GE page<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Drive\u00a0east along East Street in Pittsfield, and soon you will pass Silver Lake on your left.\u00a0 Take a left turn on Silver Lake\u00a0Boulevard and you will again have Silver Lake on your left.\u00a0 \"PCBThere\u2019s a lot of activity there right now.\u00a0 The lake bottom is\u00a0about to be\u00a0capped to cover its contaminants.\u00a0 This sweeping of PCBs under the rug is what\u2019s passing for a cleanup.\u00a0 Even after the \u201ccleanup\u201d, Silver Lake will continue to send PCBs into the section of the Housatonic River that has already been cleaned.<\/p>\n

As you begin your drive along Silver Lake Boulevard, take a look to your right.\u00a0 This is the William Stanley Business Park.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the former GE sites and has been turned into a commercial property under the guidance of the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority, or PEDA.\u00a0 According to PEDA\u2019s website, \u201cPEDA is a quasi-public agency created by a special act of the Massachusetts State Legislature, for the purpose of being the recipient and redeveloper of approximately 52 acres of General Electric Company\u2019s former industrial facility located in the heart of Pittsfield Massachusetts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice that there is a small body of water between you and the business park.\u00a0 This small water body was designed and constructed to catch runoff from the property.\u00a0 Its outlet passes under the road through a culvert and goes into Silver Lake.\u00a0 The problem is, the runoff being collected by this waterbody is coming from a former GE site and is contaminated with PCBs.\u00a0 Those PCBs are flowing into Silver Lake, and from there into the Housatonic River.<\/p>\n

The problem for PEDA is this.\u00a0 Nobody, not even a quasi-public agency, can send pollutants into a lake without a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).\u00a0 This is one of the major provisions of the Clean Water Act, and not even the infamous Consent Decree can exempt PEDA from this provision of the federal statute.\u00a0 Complying with this law could be expensive.\u00a0 The permit will likely require monitoring and may require some form of remedial activity.<\/p>\n

But BEAT doesn\u2019t think PEDA has much to worry about.\u00a0 The document by which the property was transferred from GE to PEDA is called the Definitive Economic Development Agreement, or DEDA.\u00a0 This document states, \u201cIf the contamination migrating off-site is of the same nature as that known as of the date of transfer, it shall be presumed to be caused by GE unless GE demonstrates that PEDA or a future user not controlled or invited on or otherwise allowed to enter the Transferred Property by GE caused such contamination;\u201d.\u00a0 BEAT interprets this to mean that if PCBs are migrating off site and flowing into Silver Lake and the Housatonic River, they are GE\u2019s responsibility, not PEDA\u2019s.<\/p>\n

What does PEDA have to say about this?\u00a0 BEAT has met with PEDA officials and they have not disagreed with our interpretation.\u00a0 However, they are not going to pursue this opportunity to pass the cost of complying with the Clean Water Act on to GE.\u00a0 Their reason?\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to incur the legal cost of calling their lawyer and asking for an opinion.\u00a0 Instead, PEDA is asking their lawyer to contact EPA and request that PEDA\u00a0not be made to comply with permitting regulations.<\/p>\n

BEAT has spoken with EPA officials about this.\u00a0 Their position seems fair.\u00a0 They are requiring the current occupant, PEDA, to comply with the law.\u00a0 If GE is legally responsible for picking up the tab, it\u2019s up to PEDA to pursue them legally.<\/p>\n

BEAT\u2019s discussions with PEDA officials and with EPA lead us to believe that PEDA will be held accountable under the Clean Water Act, and unless PEDA decides to take some legal initiative, the bill will be paid from\u00a0PEDA\u2019s quasi-public bank account.<\/p>\n

In the latest development in this story, GE is fighting any responsibility for the PCBs flowing into Silver Lake.<\/p>\n

So the question for all of us is,\u00a0Will GE pay the bill, or will we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(back to our main GE page) Drive\u00a0east along East Street in Pittsfield, and soon you will pass Silver Lake on your left.\u00a0 Take a left turn on Silver Lake\u00a0Boulevard and you will again have Silver Lake on your left.\u00a0 There\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19628","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry","no-media"],"yoast_head":"\nSilver Lake - Berkshire Environmental Action Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After contaminating Silver Lake, GE has put a cap over the PCBs and declared the lake clean, even though new PCBs continue to flow into the lake.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Silver Lake - Berkshire Environmental Action Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After contaminating Silver Lake, GE has put a cap over the PCBs and declared the lake clean, even though new PCBs continue to flow into the lake.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Berkshire Environmental Action Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-29T16:18:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/\",\"name\":\"Silver Lake - Berkshire Environmental Action Team\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-07T13:50:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-29T16:18:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"After contaminating Silver Lake, GE has put a cap over the PCBs and declared the lake clean, even though new PCBs continue to flow into the lake.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Silver Lake\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/\",\"name\":\"Berkshire Environmental Action Team\",\"description\":\"Protecting the environment for wildlife in support of the natural world that sustains us all.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Berkshire Environmental Action Team\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ENTIRE-BEAT-logo-high-res-transparent-copy.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ENTIRE-BEAT-logo-high-res-transparent-copy.png\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1419,\"caption\":\"Berkshire Environmental Action Team\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Silver Lake - Berkshire Environmental Action Team","description":"After contaminating Silver Lake, GE has put a cap over the PCBs and declared the lake clean, even though new PCBs continue to flow into the lake.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Silver Lake - Berkshire Environmental Action Team","og_description":"After contaminating Silver Lake, GE has put a cap over the PCBs and declared the lake clean, even though new PCBs continue to flow into the lake.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/","og_site_name":"Berkshire Environmental Action Team","article_modified_time":"2016-10-29T16:18:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/","name":"Silver Lake - Berkshire Environmental Action Team","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png","datePublished":"2015-08-07T13:50:05+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-29T16:18:54+00:00","description":"After contaminating Silver Lake, GE has put a cap over the PCBs and declared the lake clean, even though new PCBs continue to flow into the lake.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-12.15.58-PM-300x288.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/silver-lake\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Silver Lake"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/","name":"Berkshire Environmental Action Team","description":"Protecting the environment for wildlife in support of the natural world that sustains us all.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#organization","name":"Berkshire Environmental Action Team","url":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ENTIRE-BEAT-logo-high-res-transparent-copy.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ENTIRE-BEAT-logo-high-res-transparent-copy.png","width":2000,"height":1419,"caption":"Berkshire Environmental Action Team"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebeatnews.org\/BeatTeam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}