“The retreat brings people together, builds community in the forest, gets participants outside and off their screens, and uses nature sustainably to heal and inspire minds and souls,” stated Great Mountain Forest Executive Director Michael Zafros. Retreat registration closes on July 30.
Among other research, the EPA’s findings indicate that where there are small, piston-engine aircraft operating, there is an increase in lead concentrations in air. The FAA says it, along with the EPA, is working to stop the use of lead in the fuel, and backing research to come up with alternatives.
With 50 stores and Big Y stocking Mighty No Bitey, its creator, Terri See, had to start bottling in a Monterey church basement, but that’s not going to cut it from here on out.
Lenox will receive a workshop from the EPA on encouraging equitable development, which helps communities develop in ways that do not disproportionately affect certain populations or residents.
Great Barrington’s wastewater treatment facility, which maintains 35 miles of sewer line and six pumping stations throughout Great Barrington and Housatonic, was recognized for its exceptional organization and exemplary maintenance program.
Developer Jeffrey Cohen says the town should deal with the property no matter who eventually develops it since it will require the town’s capacities in both finding funding and shouldering liability for the legacy of dry cleaning chemicals that are still migrating across town in groundwater.
In Housatonic Flag Rock resident Ariane Blanchard and her neighbor say systemic mold infestation has created a toxic building syndrome that has made them sick. Remedies ordered by the Board of Health can’t be used because, her physician says, they will increase airborne mold.
In 2008 Hazen Paper Company bought the building from Neenah Paper Company for $785,000 according to John Hazen, whose company has never had any dealings with GE but whose building is subject to the restriction allowing only industrial use for 12 more years.
This is a problem all over the state and this region, “particularly in the Berkshires,” where most houses were built before 1978, the year lead was banned as a paint additive for residential use.
If this decision holds strong against what will likely be a protracted legal fight from GE, the $613 million cleanup will go forward eventually, and the PCB-contaminated waste will be shipped out of state.
Texas Republican John Culberson, who has voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, has said he believes that a higher power has put life on other worlds and he wants to find it on his watch.
The GE-owned parcel at Rising Pond here — earmarked by the company for a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) dump --is zoned for residential use only, according to Great Barrington Town Planner Christopher Rembold, who said the town’s zoning regulations “do not allow an industrial-type use.”
Housatonic homeowners are now worried about their property values — not to mention potential health risks from a nearby dump — and prospective homebuyers are now saying they won’t buy in Housatonic.
If our goal is to surround our homes with sterile patches of uniform green, in pursuit of some vision of suburban perfection, even while raising cancer risks for our children, we should probably reevaluate our priorities.
GE doesn’t want the Environmental Protection Agency telling it to ship the contaminated sludge from the Housatonic River to a certified remediation facility in Texas. It wants to drop it into three Berkshire landfills instead.
General Electric proposes to stash PCBs from the river in three landfills: one next to Woods Pond in Lenox Dale, another near the Mass Pike in Lee, close to Goose Pond, and the third adjacent to the Rising Pond dam in Housatonic.
