Housatonic River basin deserves major cleanup

It’s been a long time coming. In the past 30 years during which General Electric has been held accountable, in stages, by ongoing legal actions for their decades-long contamination of the waterways around Pittsfield, Mass., and down the Housatonic River (among other areas), the time must surely have seemed interminable for those whose lives were directly affected by the pollution. The cleanup around Pittsfield happened in the first stages of the agreements with GE, and in the three decades since, remediation and other environmental improvements related to the contamination cleanup have happened in fits and starts, slowly but steadily making the region affected more livable.

Now, as reported by Patrick Sullivan in this newspaper last week, with about $1 million in grants coming in to Northwest Corner towns affected by the GE dumping, there will be some positive outcome for this region from the years of litigation and negotiation. A restored fishway in West Cornwall and conservation easements in Sharon and Salisbury are a few of the 11 projects which will, if they pass the tests of local, state and federal approvals, make the river basin in this region a better place long-term. It’s about time.

The projects were defined by the proposals which were written for the grant money by a wide range of agencies, from the Housatonic Valley Association to the Sharon Land Trust,  the state Department of Environmental Protection, Sharon Audubon and Trout Unlimited and more. Much hard work went into the research for the projects, and those who put in the time have reaped the benefits which will improve the environment for all on the river and its waterways.

If ever the current laws for environmental protection seem a bit much, it’s important to remember how and why they were formed. There was a time when there was no Department of Environmental Protection, either in Connecticut or Massachusetts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970, during Richard Nixon’s first term as president, as a direct response to exactly the type of abuses perpetrated by GE out of their Pittsfield plant. While now the agency may seem just one more part of the governmental bureaucracy that sucks up our tax dollars, it serves a purpose that is essential to the country’s health and to the protection of our environment.

Reports of lead poisoning of the general population came out of China last week, one more repercussion of that nation’s industrialization which has led to its currently having 16 of the top 20 most polluted cities on the planet. China, India and the other developing nations undergoing industrialization would do well to take note of the direction the United States took in order to wrench some control of its natural resources and make environmental protection part of their governing structure.

There’s always more to be done. The trend now toward green building and living is one that should gain more and more support in order to become a way of life for mainstream America. However, the projects that can now be undertaken by this region’s agencies as a result of the grants awarded will make a difference, if they are approved by overseeing government at all levels, preserving or restoring wildlife habitats and making the natural world more accessible to all. Let’s hope the environmental laws haven’t become so restrictive that improvements such as these would be unable to meet the standards set, funded as they were by a corporation which was a large part of why the laws were needed in the first place.