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Public Meeting Scheduled in Pittsfield for Sept. 7

Release Date: 08/25/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: David Deegan (deegan.dave@epa.gov), EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1017

For Immediate Release: August 25, 2005; Release # dd050816

(Pittsfield, Mass.) - The Citizens Coordinating Council for the GE Pittsfield / Housatonic River Project will meet on Sept. 7th, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Berkshire Athenaeum.

The September meeting is the first following a recently completed mid-course evaluation conducted to help assess the future direction of the group. Suzanne Orenstein, a neutral facilitator who was engaged to conduct the assessment, will be reporting her findings to the group and leading a discussion on the future direction of the group.

The agenda also includes a discussion about cleanup and other activities that will be underway over the next year and establishing the 2005 - 2006 meeting schedule.

EPA’s objectives over the next year include completing the excavation and backfilling activities in the 1.5 Mile Reach and overseeing GE’s cleanup of the floodplain properties adjacent to the 1.5 Mile Reach from Dawes Avenue to the confluence. In addition, GE plans to complete the remediation of two to four of the former Oxbow Areas that abut the 1.5 Mile Reach.

At the facility, EPA expects GE to submit the Silver Lake phase 3 bench scale study in early 2006 and also expects GE to submit the Pilot Study Work Plan for EPA approval. Construction of the pilot study’s one-acre cap is expected to get underway in late 2006. GE will be conducting the work and EPA will be overseeing the activities. Soil investigations at the GE facility and the Unkamet Brook Area are also anticipated to be completed by GE in the next year.

For the Rest of River component, EPA, with GE, continues to complete the steps necessary to make a decision on the Rest of River. Three major milestones on the schedule for the coming year include GE’s submittal of the proposed Interim Media Protection Goals (IMPGs, or cleanup numbers) in early September. The IMPGs are one of the criteria considered in the evaluation of remedial alternatives in the Rest of River. In addition, EPA will present the Model Validation Report in January. The report will evaluate the effectiveness of the model as a tool for predicting PCB fate and transport and in the evaluation of future concentrations of PCBs under different cleanup scenarios. A Peer Review of the Model Validation Report will be held in May 2006. Finally, the Corrective Measures Study Proposal, describing remedial alternatives that will be evaluated in greater detail, will be submitted by GE in the fall of 2006.

All are welcome to attend and participate in the CCC meeting.

More information on this cleanup effort is available at: https://www.epa.gov/ne/ge/index.html .

Related Information:
GE/Housatonic River Site