PITTSFIELD â Justices in Washington, D.C., will hear in September directly from those for and against a plan to bury PCBs in Lee.
The Environmental Appeals Board has notified attorneys that justices are ready to hold oral arguments in the case, which pits two environmental groups against the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Electric Co. and other parties that supported the plan, revealed in February 2020, to allow the burial of sediments with lower levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in an engineered landfill at a former quarry above the Housatonic River.
The court said it will decide whether to convene the hearing at its headquarters in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building off 12th Street or allow it to take place by videoconference.
The General Electric Co. is betting that two legal challenges will fail to stop the agreement it reached in early 2020 with the Environmental Protection Agency to bury sediments tainted with PCBs on a site in Lee. Last month, the company spent $6.2 million to buy 75 acres from Lane Construction Corp. The land included in the sale is located in the center-right area in this photo, which is looking north, with October Mountain to the right. EAGLE FILE PHOTO
LEE â The General Electric Co. now owns the place in Lee where it expects to bury a million cubic yards of toxic sediments pulled from the Housatonic River.
Nancy Eve Cohen / NEPM
Originally published on May 7, 2021 10:32 am
General Electric and the EPA have responded to an appeal of the agency s plan to clean up the rest of the Housatonic River.
So far, the first two miles south of the former GE plant in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, have been cleaned up. The plan for the rest of the Housatonic calls for a PCB disposal site near the river in Lee.
The appeal, filed by the Housatonic River Initiative and Housatonic Environmental Action League, includes a geological report of the disposal site, describing it as a “textbook example of where not to locate a landfill.” The report describes the sediments as highly permeable, which would allow PCBs to migrate.
A stretch of the Housatonic River winds through Lenox. Legal filings are stacking up at the Environmental Appeals Board in Washington, D.C., as fights continue over the nature of the long-awaited Rest of River cleanup project. Photos by STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN â THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
LEE â âIpse dixit.â Thatâs the Latin phrase lawyers for a group of elected officials use to rebut claims that Berkshires residents âoverwhelminglyâ oppose a proposed PCB landfill in Lee.
It means âdogmatic and unproven.â
Quote
As briefs begin to stack up at the Environmental Appeals Board in Washington, D.C., the legal players are front-loading their arguments.
Activists sound new alarm about pollution at Great Barrington apartments, despite DEP clearance berkshireeagle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from berkshireeagle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.