The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a plan to clean the Housatonic River stretching from Pittsfield, Massachusetts to the Long Island Sound. The plan proposes the removal and capping of contaminated sediment.
The 13-year, $613 million Rest of the River plan would involve active corrective measures along 10-and-a half miles of the river from Pittsfield to Lenox. General Electric’s Pittsfield plant released PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, into the waterway from the 1930s until the substance was banned in 1977. Jim Murphy is the EPA’s spokesman for the project.
“Our basic expected outcome is we want to reduce what we consider right now an unacceptable human health risk with direct contact from the sediments and the floodplain soil,” Murphy explained. “We also expect to see reductions in concentrations in the critters that are out in the river as well as the fish. That would allow increased human consumption of fish and other things people would take from the river.”
The first public meeting is June 18th in Lenox. GE is required to pay for remediation and is reviewing the plan.
This story will be updated.
