The Berkshire Environmental Action Team, or BEAT, is celebrating 20 years of environmental activism this week. In 2003, the group formed at Berkshire Community College to protect vernal pools threatened by the construction of new soccer fields on the Pittsfield campus. Since then, BEAT has evolved from a group of volunteers with a narrow focus to an organization with a paid staff that has worked to stop pipelines, influence legislation, and ensure Berkshire County considers environmentalism in its long-term planning. BEAT is also involved in one of the region’s most tortured public debates through its support for a controversial Housatonic River cleanup plan that will bring a new landfill for low level toxic materials to the county. Ahead of Saturday’s 20th anniversary celebration at BEAT’s Environmental Leadership & Education Center, WAMC spoke with Executive Director Jane Winn.
WINN: Oh boy. We were a band of volunteers who were watching a project to put in a new soccer field at Berkshire Community College, and we thought it could be an example of how you can do something right near a group of vernal pools without hurting it, and instead watched as a broken system did not protect the vernal pools, and realized that really, somebody needed to be speaking up and making sure our really good environmental laws actually get enforced. And that was the start of BEAT.
WAMC: When you look back on the last two decades, what stands out to you as some of the biggest wins for BEAT?
Oh boy. I would say the biggest one was definitely stopping the fracked gas pipeline that was proposed to run all the way across Massachusetts to a gas hub in Dracut where it would have then gone up to Nova Scotia for export. And that was a project that was a done deal, all you could do was change the route a little, and we didn't agree, and thousands of activists rose up and we stopped the pipeline.
Over the last 20 years, how would you describe the evolution or change in BEAT’s mission?
The mission has always stayed the same- To protect the environment for wildlife in support of the natural world that sustains us all. But I think we went from stopping little projects to realizing we could have a much bigger influence- And working with all the partners, both local environmental groups, nonprofits, churches, congregations, we really could see our influence growing and being able to have a much, much broader impact. And now that we're looking at things like putting peaking power plant plants in the past- So, we've got these highly polluting power plants, and there were three in Berkshire County, now there's only one. So, we've become more powerful, and with all our allies, able to do so much more.
Give us a snapshot of the kind of work BEAT is doing at the end of 2023 as you prepare to celebrate this 20th anniversary.
We’re making sure wildlife has the ability to move throughout the county, especially focused on ways to get them safely across roads between permanently protected properties. We're working on water quality issues, making sure stormwater gets treated before it gets into our rivers and lakes. We're working on air quality. Our newest project is Breathe Easy Berkshires, right now focused on Pittsfield, looking at the air quality in Pittsfield. And we had been thinking it would be to try to shut down the incinerator in Pittsfield and the peaking power plants. Now there's only one peaking power plant, so it'll be much more broad, looking at air quality and figuring out with the community, what should we be trying to clean up next?
One of the more controversial stances BEAT has taken is your endorsement of an EPA negotiated plan between General Electric and communities along the Housatonic River to clean up the waterway that that company polluted over the 20th century from a plant in Pittsfield. Were you expecting your support for that plan to be as controversial as it has proven to be? And what are your thoughts on that, three years after it's been announced?
Definitely, yes, we knew. I mean, we had agreed- We didn't want to dump in the Berkshires, either. But we could see the very real possibility of three dumps, and those could all be high level dumps if it went to court. And we felt that saying, okay, we’ll accept one low level dump is worth it as long as we get 100 acres more sediment out of the river, less capping in the river, two dams removed. We felt we got enough benefit from that, that it was worth accepting one dump. We knew that others would not feel the same, but I still think it was the right thing scientifically, getting that stuff out of the river as quickly as possible. And we will still fight to get EPA to work with scientists to find a way to break down PCBs safely. And then get all the dumps, including the two in Pittsfield, cleaned up.
As you look ahead into ongoing conversations about environmentalism in the Berkshires, what is the next thing on the docket? What's the next big issue you anticipate BEAT becoming involved in?
Oh boy, there's so many to choose from. We would like to stop rodenticides that are being used to kill rats and lots of other animals unintentionally that then spreads and kills some of our most valuable, our coyotes or bobcats, because it's administered in a way that these little animals eat it, and then go out into the wild. We'd like to stop the use of many of the ‘cides- Herbicides, pesticides, that yes, they're killing something that bothers us, but in the long run, they're killing biodiversity and it's coming back to bite us. We also want to really get off of all fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and I think the Berkshires can be a leading example of that. We really only have one electric generator who runs 2% of the time that they used to run, and that's the only fossil fuel electric generator in the Berkshires. So, we're getting there. But there's so much more to do.
So, let's bring it all home, Jane- What is this celebration of 20 years of BEAT going to be like, and what is it all about at the end of the day?
I think this is going to be great. We're having it at the property that we purchased back at the end of 2021, the former Immanuel Community Church, and we've made the first floor fully accessible. So, there's a sloped walkway up into the building, we have an accessible bathroom, and my favorite is an accessible balcony that looks out over the southwest branch of the Housatonic River so everybody can see this fantastic piece of the Berkshires that we're in. And we'll be celebrating the fact that we went from a tiny all volunteer organization to an organization that now has seven paid staff and our own property.
