MELISSA KRAH

November 26, 2009

Starting north of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Housatonic River drains water from Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut into Long Island Sound. In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the General Electric Company (General Electric) owned and operated a manufacturing facility along a stretch of the Housatonic River. For decades, General Electric legally used polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs to manufacture electrical transformers. However, General Electric was generally forced to stop using PCBs in the 1970s after Congress passed the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA).

PCBs were targeted under TSCA because PCBs cause a variety of adverse human health effects including probable carcinogenic effects and noncancerous effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems. General Electric's years of lawful PCB use created a toxic legacy around their Pittsfield facility due to PCBs migrating and moving with the flow of the river. The realities of soil and sediment contaminated with PCBs resulted in the United States government filing suit against General Electric pursuant to § 106 and § 107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), § 3008 and § 7003 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and other federal statutes in order to remediate contaminated land on and around General Electric's Pittsfield facility.

In 2000, the law suit ended with the United States District Court approving a consent decree between various parties including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Massachusetts' Department of Environmental Protection, Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection, the City of Pittsfield, and General Electric. The consent decree provides for comprehensive remediation and restoration of the Housatonic River, the former General Electric facility, several former oxbows of the river, contaminated floodplain properties along the river, contaminated groundwater, the Allendale School, Silver Lake and Unkamet Brook. Included in the areas designated for remediation under the consent decree is an area entitled the "Rest of the River," which consists the Housatonic River, its sediments, and floodplains that are downstream of the union of the East and West Branches of the Housatonic River. Essentially, the "Rest of the River" describes the area of the Housatonic River two miles downstream from the site of General Electric's Pittsfield facility.

Since the consent decree, the EPA and General Electric have spent much of their time removing PCBs from the first two miles of the Housatonic River; leaving work to be done on what cleanup is necessary for the "Rest of the River." Currently, governmental agencies, General Electric, citizens, and non-governmental organizations are working towards developing a remedy that will remove PCBs from the Housatonic River.

The diversity of stake-holders in the restoration of the Housatonic River breeds disagreement over what is the best remedy. The recent public comment period on proposed remediation plans raised a number of issues including whether dredging contaminated sediment will result in downstream pollution migration that will adversely affect the environment and how much of the "Rest of the River" should be dredged to remove contaminated sediment. One of the most controversial issues yet to be dealt with is where to store the PCB-contaminated sediment removed from the river.

No final plan has yet been settled on to clean-up the PCB contamination in the "Rest of the River."

Sources:

Toxic Substances Control Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2605 et seq.

40 C.F.R. pt. 761.

U.S. v. Gen. Elec. Co., No. 99-30225 (D.C. Mass. Oct. 27, 2000), http://www.epa.gov/NE/ge/cleanup/9420.pdf (Consent Decree).

United States Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov/NE/ge/index.html (last visited Nov. 21, 2009).

U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency, Public Comments to EPA Regarding GE's Corrective Measures Study Work Plan (2009), available at http://www.epa.gov/NE/ge/thesite/restofriver/reports/gereportsndocs/458605.pdf.

Nancy Cohen, The EPA Seeks Public Comment on Housatonic River Cleanup, Conn. Pub. Radio, Oct. 20, 2009, http://www.cpbn.org/article/epa-seeks-public-comment-housatonic-river-cleanup.

Nancy Cohen, Advocates: Clean the Housatonic But Don't Damage It, Conn. Pub. Radio, June 18, 2009, http://www.cpbn.org/article/advocates-clean-housatonic-dont-damage-it.