Since it was announced in 2020, a blockbuster, almost $600 million plan to remediate the polluted Housatonic River brokered by the Environmental Protection Agency between General Electric and communities downstream of its former Pittsfield plant has faced opposition.
“There are people that are riled up and very, very, very upset about what's happening and the way the process went along, and did it where we get no vote, was basically slammed down the throat of all the towns," said Tim Gray. "And you know, there was no vote on it. Simple as that. That makes it wrong.”
Gray of the Housatonic River Initiative has spent decades advocating for the waterway. He’s been an outspoken critic of the agreement, which calls for a new landfill in Lee for toxic materials removed from the river.
“A dump in our town is not the answer," Gray told WAMC. "And, you know, we have a well-known geologist that wrote a report on it, and he says the dump, that the place they want to build it is unstable rock land, and no dumps should be built on that, that section. So that's number one. The other thing is that the settlement takes out an unknown amount from the river. Our calculations say approximately 30%. 30% from the river, out of 70%, leaving that, means that the river will stay contaminated forever.”
The EPA maintains that the cleanup plan, which retains support from regional state and federal elected officials, represents the most concrete and effective way to address dangerous chemicals put into the Housatonic River by GE over the 20th century that have remained in the water ever since, save for a stretch immediately south of the plant in Pittsfield that was remediated 20 years ago.
In July, a legal effort from the HRI and the Housatonic Environmental Action League to stop the cleanup was struck down in federal appeals court.
“Of course, we were disappointed, but we sort of expected it because they switched a judge on us and the new judge ended up being a judge that had a lot of industry experience," said Gray. "And she nixed the whole thing. The other trouble I have with what went on in that courtroom is that the lawyer for Rest of River committee, who was a party to the action, got up, and he basically lied to the judge. And that really bothers all of us at HRI. He got up and said that all the towns in Berkshire County are united behind this plan, which is so untrue, it's ridiculous, because he knows that Lee has been not a party to it for three, four, or five years now.”
The issue has dominated Lee’s local politics since 2020, and Gray says a new front from the community is opening up in its attempt to ditch the plan.
“The town is suing Monsanto," he said. "And it's going to be a new lawsuit. The town of Lee has signed on to do it, and they have a lawyer that has extensive experience in the environmental world, and all we can hope for is that that might be able to help us do something different than what they're doing.”
Gray says the HRI is also infuriated at plans for how materials removed from the river would be trucked out of Lee.
“They want to take it down Main Street, which is like, what? This is just unheard of, you know?" he said. "And they want to take it down Walker Street in Lenox. And the problem is that right now, it's all stuff that they're putting out there that you can't count on really being there, because they change it. And they actually told us they will probably change. So right now, we know there's going to be trucks coming to our community, but we don't exactly know the final plan of what's going to happen. But we deserve to know the final plan, what's going to happen.”
