Andrew Sifler, Project Manager, GE, reported. There was difficulty with the audio and with the charts displaying the trucks routes. That was particularly disappointing because the truck routes were of primary importance to the over two hundred who attended. Further, it appeared that many decisions — for example the use of hydraulics to move PCBs through pipes versus trucks or trains, were not finalized.
Sifler did confirm this was a 13-year process with thousands of sixteen-ton trucks sometimes as many as 40 per day traveling Routes 183, 102, 20 and 7. It was disconcerting when streets recognized by locals as Walker Street, Lenox, Main Street, Lee, and Main Street, Stockbridge were called by Route names. It was unclear if they did not know Route 102 was Main Street Stockbridge or Route 20 was Main Street Lee or Route 183 was Walker Street Lenox or if they were obfuscating. Also disconcerting was the tendency to refer to two-lane, tree-lined roads as “state highways.”
Frist to comment was Charles Kenny, Chair of both the Stockbridge Board of Health and Tri-Town Board of Health who said, “I am very disappointed with this presentation.”
Kenny was concerned that GE and the EPA are not minimizing the public’s contact with PCB toxic waste. He preferred waste be transported to off-site facilities via rail rather than in trucks along public roads.
100,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment and soil removed will be disposed of off-site “at an existing TSCA-approved disposal facility or RCRA hazardous waste landfill or a landfill permitted by the receiving state to accept PCB remediation wastes, depending on the contaminant levels and waste classifications.” That is only 10% and many asked, “why not more?”
Kenny and others felt strongly that rail was the preferred mode of transport and that material excavated from the river, riverbank, and floodplain should be placed adjacent to appropriately located rail staging areas and not trucked all over.
Lee Select Board Chair Robert Jones read a letter from Parker F. Rodriguez, attorney, Housatonic Railroad Company, that stated flatly statistics used by GE to support an argument that trucks were cheaper and more flexible than train transport was disingenuous.
There were three Stockbridge residents who spoke: Kenny, Patrick White, and Denny Alsop. Alsop presented a petition with over 2000 signatures opposing truck transport.
Comments continued an hour beyond the scheduled end of meeting (8:30pm). None were supportive of the GE plan for transporting the PCB material through village streets by truck.
However, GE stated clearly, there was a court-ordered agreement to remediate the situation for which GE was responsible and GE was going to follow it. GE did not mention the parts of the agreement left open to negotiate — for example truck vs train transport.
