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General Electric "Honored" with Dirty Dozen Award
Citizens from Massachusetts and Connecticut who live, work and play along the Housatonic River, along with environmental groups from both states, gathered in Pittsfield recently to present General Electric with a 2002 Dirty Dozen Award for refusing to clean up a dangerous PCB landfill adjacent to an elementary school.
Fifty feet from Allendale Elementary School in Pittsfield sits one of the most toxic sites in New England, General Electric's Hill 78. The soil from Hill 78, dumped there by GE, contains 60,000 times the safe residential levels of PCBs, a known carcinogen. The Housatonic Environmental Action League, Inc. (HEAL) and the Housatonic River Initiative, Inc. (HRI) are demanding that GE clean up the PCB landfill. The government site assessment states that GE workers dumped barrels of toxic PCBs at Hill 78. HEAL and HRI believe common sense dictates that a chemical dump should not be in proximity to an elementary school and to people’s homes. In addition, HEAL and HRI oppose GE's plan to dump on Hill 78 more PCB-laden soil taken from the Housatonic dredging project.
"Contamination from Hill 78 has the potential to leach from the site and contaminate the Housatonic River," said HEAL spokesperson Judy Herkimer. "Connecticut's rivers should not bear the burden of pollution from GE's mess in Massachusetts." HEAL is concerned that there has been inadequate testing for PCBs in the Housatonic's riverbank sediments, and sediments in the floodplain. HEAL hopes to obtain funding for testing of those sites, and to determine floodplain area baseline contamination levels.
"State lines do not stop pollution," said Vanessa Pierce, Field Organizer for the Toxics Action Center. "GE must take responsibility for its PCB contamination—in Massachusetts and in Connecticut."
The 4th annual Dirty Dozen Awards spotlight twelve of Connecticut's top polluters. The Dirty Dozen were selected from a set of nominations by a five-member panel of environmental and public health professionals. They believe these sites pose a significant threat to public health and the environment and need immediate action by industry and/or government officials. For more info call the Toxics Action Center at 860-233-7623, or visit <www.toxicsaction.org>.
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