The Neighborhoods Find Out
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On January 31, 2003 an article entitled “State to require impact report on waste transfer station plan” appeared in The Berkshire Eagle. For most of the people living around the proposed site, this was the first time they had heard that “Valley Mill Corp. of Lee planned to construct a 12,600-square-foot processing building, a two-story office building, a truck scale, an access road and a rail spur for the facility, which would handle up to 250 tons a day of construction and demolition debris, including asphalt, brick, concrete, wood and scrap metal.”A neighborhood representative called BEAT. We agreed to visit the site, and suggested that the neighborhood residents also call Toxics Action Center, an environmental organization that helps citizen groups organize to fight ill-concieved projects in their back yards. (If you are in western Massachusetts and need help fighting a toxic threat, you can call them at 413-253-4458.)
Our visit to the site was an eye-opener! The proposed project was to be sited right at the top of the bank of the only non-polluted branch of the Housatonic River in Pittsfield. The area is open space surrounded by woodland and the river and is used by residents of all the surrounding neighborhoods as a path to walk, walk dogs, cross-country ski, etc. As BEAT members walked the area, we met several groups of walkers. One group said that their family had been using the area to walk from their home to Morewood Lake since their parents had been children. Today they had brought visiting relatives to the riverside site for a pleasant walk. We saw many trails leading to the site from surrounding woods and two trails leading to nearby Clapp Park.
Proponents are calling this a redevelopment site which gives them a little more leeway in the permitting process. We did see some railroad ties and large cement blocks at the top of the river bank, but this was not what BEAT would consider a developed site in need of redevelopment. BEAT decided we couldn’t let this project go forward.
By the time BEAT got involved in this project, the Pittsfield Conservation Commission had already issued Valley Mill a permit to begin work (an Order Of Conditions).The neighbothoods began to organize. A representative of BEAT and a representative of Toxics Action Center have attended the neighborhood meetings from the beginning. For a brief history of the project before BEAT became involved, see “How It All Began.”