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Citizens' Coordinating Council Meeting Scheduled to Discuss Housatonic River Clean Up

Release Date: 04/06/2006
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. – April 6, 2006) – There will be a meeting of the Citizens’ Coordinating Council for the GE Pittsfield / Housatonic River project on Wed. April 12. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Berkshire South Community Center, located at 15 Crissey Road in Great Barrington, Mass.

At the meeting, a panel of three national experts will discuss the capping and dredging methodologies that may be among the alternatives under consideration for addressing the portion of the Housatonic River referred to as the “Rest of River." This portion of the cleanup project refers to the section of the river extending south of Pittsfield into Connecticut. This is the first of a series of technology panels which EPA and the CCC plan to host.

Although the cleanup decision for the Rest of River is not expected until late 2007, the cleanup decision for Silver Lake, which includes excavation of a 'hot spot' of contamination and capping of the lake sediments, was incorporated into the consent decree between the government and GE.

Last week GE presented the results of their bench scale study for capping Silver Lake. GE anticipates performing a pilot study this fall or next spring on a one-acre portion of the lake to evaluate the effectiveness of various capping approaches for the 26-acre lake. Next week's panel discussion is designed to provide the community with additional background on capping technologies in advance of the pilot study getting underway.
Mike Palermo, an engineer from Vicksburg, Miss., Don Hayes from the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Utah, and Randy Sturgeon from EPA’s regional office in Philadelphia and representative to the National Contaminated Sediment Technology Advisory Group will present and discuss capping and dredging methodologies and results as well as EPA’s experience with capping and dredging nationwide. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Additional information can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/ne/ge/publiceventsandmeetings.html

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