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Water Quality The people of Berkshire County want a clean Housatonic River. They want to swim in it, eat fish from it, and feel comfortable about their children playing at the river’s edge. "The top priority should be a clean river," said Stephen Antil, chairman of the St. Joseph’s High School science department. "Perhaps some day we may swim in the river, canoe without sadness, and fish for supper! Am I naive to dream such dreams?" The Clean Water Act of 1972 and a national effort to eliminate water pollution helped reverse and eliminate the dumping of sewage, industrial pollutants, trash, and other direct discharges into the Housatonic River. Anecdotes abound from longtime residents about the many colors of the Housatonic, the filth, and the odor of the river in years past. For more than a century, the Housatonic served as a dumping ground for businesses, residents, towns, and households. "The river was a toxic stream," said Linda Small of Great Barrington. "It was unbelievable." "Twenty-five years ago it was like canoeing on an oil slick," said Charles Cook, transportation planner at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. "Nobody likes to canoe on an oil slick, even if it isn’t going to ignite. Now you can canoe on the river and enjoy the experience." Nevertheless, the stigma of a badly polluted river remains—both in fact and in the minds of residents. Many people said they are nervous to put even a toe in the river because of the Housatonic’s reputation as a contaminated river. "I mean, if you tip over in a canoe, do you come out glowing?" Lenox Selectman Tim Doherty asked. Negative publicity about PCBs and other forms of pollution in the river have taken their toll on the river’s reputation. Instead of being viewed as a natural resource, people see it as a liability. "People are terrified of that river." Despite the progress, residents and officials say there is still significant pollution in the river, both from PCBs and other sources. PCB contamination continues to repel residents and visitors from using the river. But PCBs are not the only chemical in the Housatonic. "There’s a lot of waste we don’t know about," said Tom Stokes, former Berkshire director of the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA). "We do know the river has gotten cleaner, but more attention has to be paid regarding the discharge of pollution from permitted locations and from non-point discharges—which is really the worst—from highways, parking lots, and fields." Residents, environmentalists, and public officials at the public hearings stressed that a clean river was the ultimate goal and would go a long way toward restoring the community’s connection to the Housatonic. "If you clean it, the people will come," said HRI board member Mickey Friedman of Great Barrington at the November 30 public hearing. As regulatory protections helped reduce the level of pollution over the last twenty years, he noted, there was a resurgence of activity along the river, which has steadily grown. "The people in this room would not have been here 15 years ago because it was a poisoned river. People are here because now we can imagine that we can use the river. It’s amazing that we’re having a discussion about whether there could be too many people on the river. To me the issue is cleaning the river. If we do clean the river, then the people will be there. They will act respectfully, as they have been through this entire process." New sources of public funds are being created specifically to remove direct and non-point sources of pollution, said Russ Cohen, river advocate for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Using the NRD (Natural Resource Damages) money, he said, HRR could trigger other pools of money. "This is an opportunity to leave a framework for the enduring care of the river that it has never had before," Cohen said. Throughout the public hearing process, residents spoke about two categories of concern pertaining to water quality—PCBs and other contaminants. PCBs At every public hearing there was significant interest and concern about the status of the PCB remediation process. Time after time, residents expressed profound concern about the impact of PCBs on the river. In Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, residents said they wanted more testing done or some other reassurance that PCBs are not at higher levels than publicly acknowledged. In many cases, it took twenty minutes or more of discussion about the status of the PCB contamination, negotiations with GE, and the cleanup process before the topic turned to natural resource damages. "I want that stuff gone," said Linda Small, director of Children’s Health Program in Great Barrington. "I want a swimmable, fishable river. If there is any way we can get the PCBs cleaned, then the river will do the rest by itself. If I had a large chunk of money and you asked me where to put it, I’d say use it to get that stuff out." Being downstream of the GE site, residents said they were fearful that the PCB cleanup would not be adequate to relieve their communities of high levels of contamination. In Sheffield, residents said they were angry that PCBs might still be in the river even after the GE cleanup was completed and might pose a threat to the town’s floodplain, much of which is used for farming. They called the idea of using NRD money for "picnic tables and canoe launches" a "charade" if PCBs remained as a threat in the river. "We would gladly not take anything [from a natural resource damage settlement] if it means not having the river cleaned up of PCBs," Sheffield Selectman Janet Stanton said. "It’s important that people know that that is the sentiment of Sheffield." Several environmentalists who have been involved in the PCB discussions for many years said they are very worried that future phases of the cleanup beyond the initial two-mile stretch in Pittsfield will not be properly completed. By the time GE and the regulators get to that stage in the cleanup process, they fear, the political will to undertake a complete cleanup of the river will have faded. Downstream residents, property owners, and farmers also said they were concerned that the PCB cleanup be done in a way that does not unnecessarily disturb PCBs in the river so that they are unleashed downstream. "I don’t want to see anything happen that will stir up the pollution onto the farmland," said Sheffield farmer Jim Larkin. HRI Director Tim Gray provided updates on the PCB remediation process. The Housatonic River Initiative started the public drive for a fishable, swimmable river in 1992. With this as a primary goal, the Initiative has been widely acknowledged as the most effective voice in Berkshire County for remediation of the PCBs in the Housatonic River. Through its public outreach and education programs, HRI has educated and sparked public involvement that has led to a precedent-setting PCB cleanup in both the Housatonic River and the city of Pittsfield. HRI believes there ought to be strong public involvement in the decisions regarding the cleanup of the first two miles. Any cleanup levels set in the first two miles may become the precedent for the rest of the river cleanup. HRI is fighting to secure a thorough cleanup of the first two miles, and is advocating treatment rather than burial of the PCB-contaminated sediment. While the cleanup of the first two miles will occur in the next few years, the EPA will not make a remediation decision for the rest of the river until 2001. "The entire cleanup and restoration of the Housatonic River will be in jeopardy if the PCBs are not cleaned from this section that the EPA calls the ‘the rest of the river,’" Gray said. "The ‘rest of the river’ contains some of the most beautiful and ecologically sensitive sections of the Housatonic River. This section of the river contains some of the highest volumes and concentrations of PCBs both in the sediment and in the fish. Education and a proactive public will be needed to ensure that this part of the river will be cleansed of PCBs. HRI continues to work for the complete removal of PCBs from the Housatonic River. As long as PCB contamination exists, the water quality of the Housatonic River is threatened. It is foremost in Berkshire County’s interest that these efforts continue and be funded." Non-PCB Contamination Beyond PCBs, other pollutants continue to stain the Housatonic River. From Hinsdale to Sheffield, non-point and direct discharges of contaminants continue to flow into the Housatonic. "It’s not just GE that created the poor health of the river," Great Barrington resident John W. P. Mooney said. There is widespread concern about a wide range of problems, including storm runoff, direct discharges from households and industrial plants, agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, leaking landfills, septic systems, and other sources. "The best use for the money would be to further address other river-polluting sources," wrote Deidre Consolati of Lee. "The long-range goal [should be] a PRISTINE river, not one cleaned of just PCBs." In order to accomplish that goal, several residents and officials advocated a comprehensive monitoring program. "First and foremost there needs to be an ongoing process to understand what goes into the river," said Peter Berle, a Stockbridge resident and former president of the National Audubon Society. "Permits are given to mills along the river to regulate the amount of pollutants going into the river. Nobody is looking at that in an aggregate way. We need an ongoing monitoring of it, and we need to develop a strategy to make sure less goes in." A monitoring system should be developed to figure out and control the amount of highway runoff and non-source pollution entering the river, Berle suggested. The fund could create a locally based organization that is the engine for that process. "We have a great opportunity to make this the best, cleanest river in New England. We only have one shot and we shouldn’t waste it," Berle said. EOEA Team Leader Tom O’Brien said stewardship should include a better understanding of the withdrawal and discharge permitting program administered by the regulatory agencies. The stewardship organization should not get into the business of issuing permits but could assist the regulatory agencies in their public review and watershed-based coordination of the permits, he said. Residents expressed a strong interest in establishing a community-based river stewardship program. They said the program should assist in the enforcement of existing regulations and encourage the education of residents, riverfront property owners, municipalities, and businesses in river-friendly practices. "If there had been an ongoing program to monitor water quality during the past fifty years, perhaps this massive hassle and cleanup could have been avoided," wrote Barton Ogden of Pittsfield. "To prevent further degradation and to keep the river clean forward in time, I propose a perpetual monitoring program. As such an effort requires ongoing funding with the ideal being from an independent source, I would propose establishing an endowment that is dedicated to this goal in perpetuity." Housatonic Valley Association has begun to create "stream teams" in the watershed that are intended to create local stewardship of the river through conducting baseline data review and water quality testing programs. The baseline data will be placed in a GIS (Geographic Information System) computer system, which will be accessible for general use. The water quality tests will be analyzed with the intention of developing an ongoing program. Results will be shared with appropriate sources. HVA plans to create ten teams in the watershed. To date, stream teams have been developed for the West and East branches of the river in Pittsfield, Dalton, and Hinsdale. Additional teams are being formed on the Konkapot and on the Housatonic River in Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, and Housatonic/Great Barrington. Former HVA Berkshire Director Tom Stokes added that stream teams can assist in the enforcement of existing regulations, a high priority according to environmentalists. "The best thing you can do is get the laws enforced that are already on the books," said Jane Winn of the state board of Massachusetts Audubon Society. "If the laws were enforced it would make a huge difference." Because of the extensive amount of testing now being done on the Housatonic River through the GE-PCB cleanup, residents noted that much of this information—as well as data and research from other sources—is already known and should be compiled into a central agency. There is a general recognition that the quality of the water in the river is a function of pollution controls in the Housatonic watershed. "You can clean up the river, but if the watershed is still polluted, it won’t do you any good," said David McAllester of Monterey. "The river is a small part of the watershed," said Tom Matuszko, planner with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. "The big picture needs to be considered in the restoration. The health of the watershed will lend itself to the condition of the river. One area that could be a leveling point for the restoration is water quality. If the water quality can be improved, then additional use and appreciation will result from that. If water quality can be the key criteria for NRD projects, then that can bring an overall benefit to the river." (See Watershed Management section.) Matuszko also cited the protection of the headwaters as a key priority for this goal. Several environmentalists endorsed the acquisition of land to secure the long-term protection of the river’s water quality. "Land acquisition is one of the best ways that controls can be imposed," said wildlife biologist Pam Weatherbee. "You don’t have to worry about people dumping into the river or building along the banks if you own it. It will give the wildlife a chance to prosper. Land acquisition is the best way to go. It gets you out of trying to make people do things they may not want to do." (See Land Acquisition section.) Throughout the public hearing process residents raised specific issues and concerns related to limiting the flow of direct discharges and non-point pollution into the Housatonic River. These included:
"These recommendations focus on preventing future impacts, because if we fix existing water quality problems from stormwater runoff, etc., while we do nothing to forestall impacts of future development, then in fifty years we will be back at the same point we’re at today." |
