Editorial: Community Health

According to the GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY HOUSATONIC RIVER - REST OF RIVER TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL PLAN...

• Estimated duration of truck traffic associated with PCB disposal — 13 years.
• Total number of trucks to transport the estimated volume, 64,000 trucks [or approximately 5000 trucks per year].
• The estimated number of trucks on Main Street, Stockbridge daily, 50.
• The daily average truck trips assume a dump truck with a 16-ton capacity.
• The need and type of reconditioning and upgrading of the roads and associated infrastructure to make them suitable for truck traffic will be determined.

These are direct quotes from the report. What do you think the impact will be on the Red Lion Inn, the annual Christmas on Main Street event, or the tourist economy in general?

I always thought of Stockbridge as "America's Hometown". A place people missed without ever living here. How? Because they miss the dream that was made real here.

Regardless of what they (GE or the EPA) said elsewhere, the report says, transport "by truck is considered more practicable than transportation by railroad for the following reasons: • There are currently no usable railroad sidings available or in proximity. If a siding has been developed or reconditioned by a third party, GE will reconsider whether it is feasible and/or appropriate to use that siding. • The use of an existing railroad siding area would require complete replacement of infrastructure at that location by installing new track and ballast. • There is uncertainty in the ability to obtain access to privately owned rail sidings and to obtain other agreements to recondition and use railroad siding locations and loading areas."

Some things are ironic, funny, and at the same time, very, very sad.

One is that the EPA reports states, "GE's upcoming Quality of Life Compliance Plan is scheduled to be submitted to EPA in December 2023."

Carole Owens
Executive Editor

Photo: Lionel Delevingne