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February 25, 2003
  Articles on this page: • Working to reclaim a swimmable, fishable Housatonic • Bringing people and the river together
Working to reclaim a swimmable, fishable Housatonic From October of 1999 to September of 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency oversaw General Electric's work to remove 18,000 cubic yards of PCB and oil contaminated sediments and soil along the Housatonic River bank from a half-mile stretch between Newell Street and Lyman Street. Three EPA risk assessments are still being completed to determine the contamination of the river and flat plains beyond the first two miles. In an agreement reached in 2000, a consent decree, GE had to clean the first half-mile of the Housatonic and the EPA is cleaning the next mile and a half. The river flows 150 miles from the Hinsdale/Washington area of Massachusetts to where it empties into Long Island Sound. One of those risk assessments, a river modeling study, takes millions of points of data to determine where PCBs have gone and will go in the future, and what happens to one part of the river if another part is cleaned, said Bryan Olson, the former EPA project manager for the site. It will also model the effects of river cleanup on animals up the food chain, said Olson. The modeling study will help determine the appropriate levels of cleanup for the rest of the river and surrounding flat plains. A decision on the rest of the cleanup will probably be made over the next two years, said Olson. Despite this particularly harsh Berkshire winter, work has continued on the cleanup of the rest of the two miles of the Housatonic that the EPA is overseeing, although work had to stop during some of the bitterest weeks in January, said Dean Tagliaferro, current EPA project manager for the mile and a half cleanup. "[The cold] causes problems with the equipment, especially starting in the morning," he said. When it's freezing, the machines will work, but when it’s 15 degrees below zero they will not. In cleaning the river, the objective is to remove 3 feet of sediments and soil from the river. To do so, cofferdams, or temporary watertight enclosures made by three 30-foot tall steel sheets, are driven about 20 feet into the ground below the river. The river is diverted around these sheet pile boxes, while the sediments and soil inside it are removed by bulldozers and taken away by trucks. Storm-drain run-off and ground water that seeps up into the exposed riverbed between the steel sheets is pumped to a nearby temporary transfer station between Lyman and Elm to be cleaned and returned. Pumping water back to the transfer station is also impossible during the extreme cold, another reason for delays in the cleanup in January, said Tagliaferro. Ever notice the fat pipes that run under the bridge on Elm St. between Friendly's Restaurant and Harry’s Supermarket where water used to be? There, said Tagliaferro, the steel plates cannot be driven into the riverbed because of bedrock. Instead the water is funneled through two large pipes. About 10 to 20 people work on the site. There is about an even split between local and out-of-state workers, said Tagliaferro. The EPA, under the 2000 consent decree, is responsible for cleaning the river from Lyman Street to Fred Garner Park, on Pomeroy Avenue. Cleanup is one third of the way finished, from Lyman Street to Elm Street, said Tagliaferro, who oversaw GE's work on the first half mile. "We are looking to finish by 2007," he said. Tim Gray said that he and his group, the Housatonic River Initiative, have been working for the last 12 years to make sure that the river be cleaned. "The work looks like it's going very well. We look forward to the completion of the two miles," said Gray, Housatonic River Initiative’s executive director. "The bad part is below the two miles. We're now pushing with everything we’ve got to ensure the cleanup below," he said. "Our dream is to reach a swimmable, fishable river." While Gray said he expects GE to challenge the EPA in court, which they are allowed to do, if the results of the risk assessments are that every dam site of the river needs to be cleaned, GE spokesman Gary Sheffer said, "We've signed an agreement. Our hope is that a fair and reasonable cleanup, and one based on science, will be done." "We'll continue to be involved scientifically and financially," said Sheffer, who is based in Connecticut.
 RETURN TO TOPBringing people and the river together Rachel Fletcher believes that you cannot separate the Housatonic River from the people who live near it. To that end, the Great Barrington resident is the executive director of the Housatonic River Restoration, a collaboration of towns and environmental organizations that has evolved a plan for the way it wants the river to be restored once the PCB remediation is complete. The Housatonic River Restoration devised and published a holistic plan in 1999 that includes ideas for trails, enhanced water quality, animal and plant life, and a more navigable river, among other goals, said Fletcher. The plan was recently revised and it is Fletcher's hope that the plan be realized. To date, about 2,000 Berkshire citizens have weighed in during 60 or 70 meetings to come up with a real "wish list" for how the river should be restored, said Fletcher. "The river is a wonderful arena for creating bonds between people and place," said Fletcher, who has a background in theater and theater design, specifically environmental theater design, and is interested in the nexus between people and places. Berkshire County is the way it is because of the Housatonic, said Fletcher: The hills, watershed, transportation routes, and the evolution of the towns. The Housatonic River Restoration is a completely separate entity from the Housatonic River Initiative, although HRI is a delegate of the HRR governing council. Fletcher explained that the Initiative is more involved with the specifics of PCB remediation, whereas Restoration is concerned with what happens to the river after the remediation. Fletcher is also the founder and director of the Great Barrington River Walk, a half-mile stretch of trails along the Housatonic behind what is now Brooks Drugs that has been restored since 1988. Over 1,800 volunteers, half of them students, have removed about 360 tons of debris from the river and what was the site of a burned building. The riverbank there was the most devastated in South County, said Fletcher, and when work began, you could not tell that there was a river because it was so tangled with debris. "We've been returning the river to a native ecology," said Fletcher. That process includes propagating native plants, which Searles students happen to be doing now, making trail surfaces out of permeable materials, and the addition of a rain garden at the W.E.B. Du Bois River Garden entrance where rainwater is collected from the street and cleansed by plants before entering the river. The use of volunteers to restore the River Walk helps bring people back to the river in meaningful ways and allows citizens to become better stewards of the river, said Fletcher. This year's volunteer season will begin on Earth Day weekend, Saturday, April 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. People will gather at the W.E.B. Du Bois River Garden entrance at the bottom of Church Street. Du Bois was an early advocate of the Housatonic. On Aug. 28 of this year, a Native Plant Workshop will take place along the River Walk, with instruction on plant identification, propagation, and demonstrations on how plants enhance water and animal quality. For more information about the Great Barrington River Walk, log on to www.gbriverwalk.org For the Housatonic River Restoration, visit www.restorehousatonic.com RETURN TO TOP |
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