“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.
The fact that 1Berkshire would take a position on the Kinder-Morgan natural gas pipeline while accepting funds from Kinder-Morgan raises many questions, just as it did when they opposed the Housatonic River cleanup while accepting a large, secret donation from General Electric.
According to the Federal Register, EPA scientists have stated that toxic landfill liners are no guarantee and that landfill pollutants can “migrate into the broader environment. Eventually liners will either degrade, tear, or crack and will allow liquids to migrate out of the unit.” GE wants three more PCB landfills in the Berkshires. But the EPA insists on out-of-state disposal in an approved PCB facility. The matter will likely be settled in court.
Massachusetts could have conditioned the move to Boston on an expeditious, cooperative cleanup of the Housatonic River; there is no evidence that that happened. On the contrary, GE appears to have received benefits and incentives in the East, and no reminder of its responsibilities in the West.
“We have before us a [cleanup] that allows significant concentrations and volumes of PCB-contaminated sediment, soils and water to remain in the water after completion of remediation activities…”
-- Rest of the River Municipal Committee, composed of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield
By any number of measures – state accident reports, scholarly studies, in-depth reporting, and filed lawsuits -- hydrofracking operations are endangering the health of people who live in the vicinity, and degrading the air and water.
Selectmen and life-long Lenox resident Dave Roche invoked the concept of an environmental legacy. “Let’s leave something better for our children,” he said.
In 1964, Mount Greylock Tramway Authority planned to transform the highest mountain in Massachusetts into a downhill ski area with a 100-foot tower on the 3,491-foot summit of Mount Greylock for the “world’s largest” aerial tramway.
