“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.
In his letter to the editor, Benno Friedman writes: “In a fair and accurate fashion, the article did not shy away from describing a complex and complicated set of issues and arguments.”
Front and center in the arguments was GE’s insistence on site disposal at Woods Pond on the Lee-Lenox border, Rising Pond in Great Barrington, and near Forest Street in Lee.
An emailed statement by a GE spokesperson indicates the company will take the matter to court, and continue to argue over how much of the 125-mile stretch of river to clean, and how.
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.
Interviewed by Jim Frangione, Berkshire Edge Managing Editor Heather Bellow discusses the issues she's been covering: proposed PCB dump in Housatonic; the new Jane Iredale/Louisa Ellis store in Great Barrington; the redevelopment of the top of Railroad Street; access to broadband Internet in the rural Berkshires; and the Democratic primary election.
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.
In her letter to the editor, Pooja Prema writes: "To ask the people of Great Barrington to pay for protesting an ongoing ecological atrocity that was committed by corporate greed – to put the bill on citizens instead of taking up the responsibility as a town government – is both ridiculous and shameful."
Rose will discuss the life of the Berkshires' Mum Bett -- who later changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman -- the first black enslaved person to gain her freedom in a court of law based on the principle of general equality.
