In Pittsfield, MA, the legacy of industry still flows through the Housatonic River, tainted by decades of GE’s PCB pollution. This story begins where progress turned toxic.

In the heart of the Berkshires, Pittsfield, Massachusetts stands as both a symbol of American industrial might and a warning of its cost. Once thriving on the power of General Electric, the city’s economy and identity were built on innovation—and left scarred by its pollution. Decades of toxic waste seeped into the Housatonic River, poisoning not just the water and wildlife, but the livelihoods that depended on them. The Post-Industrial Water Pollution Crisis begins here, where economic promise turned toxic, and where the struggle to restore health, water, and prosperity defines a new kind of recovery.

The PCB Story Of Pittsfield, MA 

Industrial PCB pollution from more than 60 years ago still pervades in blue-collar communities like Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Building 34, GE’s former Pittsfield plant (1910–2003), left behind PCB contamination, sparking a massive EPA Superfund cleanup beginning in 2000. // Source - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Boston, MA

The PCB mess of Berkshire County, MA. and the regional neighbors of Litchfield, County, CT was left as a parting gift of General Electric. It is a gift that keeps on giving. 

Between 1932 and 1977, GE dumped about 600,000 pounds of toxic PCBs from its Pittsfield, MA plant into the Housatonic River, poisoning soil, water, and wildlife from Berkshire County to Connecticut. The contamination got into peoples backyards, parks, playgrounds, and even schoolyards, turning parts of the city into toxic ground. GE capped sites like Silver Lake and built fences, but fresh PCBs still leak into local waters. Despite decades of damage, GE never admitted fault—only signed consent decrees and called it “cleanup.”

According to the research of the Housatonic River Initiative (HRI), a leading environmental group based in Berkshire County, MA. HRI said …

“PCB history is not pretty. As the timeline shows, the manufacturers and major users of PCBsknew by the 1930s and 1940s that PCBs caused serious health problems in their workers, and doctors advised them that other effects could be occurring as well. But this did not stop industries from producing and using PCBs, or from releasing PCBs into our environment, contaminating our public waterways, air, croplands, and wildlife.”

Disappointing Massachusetts Department Of Health Report.

Adding insult to injury, residents along the Housatonic River are being told that there is nothing to see here by a recent Massachusetts Department Of Health Report. 

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The report states there are no higher incidences of cancer in the area following General Electric’s operations from the early 20th century and started closing its doors in 1990’s while GE’s resulting gift of tainted rivers, lakes and brownfields - the cleanup operations have still not yet been completed in the year 2025.  

In a classic hide the news move, the Pittsfield report was released on a late Friday afternoon September 12, 2025 and has been criticized for being vague, using questionable data collection tactics, while also leaving out melanoma as well as many rare forms of cancer. 

Reacting to the Health Report, Pittsfield resident Kaitlyn Pierce, and leader of a fast growing Facebook group dubbed Sick of Pittsfield PCBs: Demanding Truth and Action said ...

“For a study that took three-plus years of ‘final review,’ it relies on methods that seem more appropriate to the 1980s than to modern environmental epidemiology.”

The PCB Dump Planned For Lee, MA

The residents of Lee, MA, and the Lee Select Board (town council) are battling General Electric and Monsanto (including Monsanto subsidiaries Solutia and Pharmacia) for damages related to PCB pollution. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, is the company now defending against the suit.

Note for WW2 buffs Bayer, manufactured Zyklon B was used to murder people in nazi concentration camps (or in other words GE, Monsanto and Bayer are birds of a poison feather).

EPA press officer Jo Ann Kittrell (L) listens as Lee Select Board member Bob Jones delivers public comments on GE’s proposed PCB cleanup. // Source - Community Television Of The Southern Berkshires 

The Rest of River agreement is a settlement from February 2020 between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), General Electric (GE)  and the five Massachusetts  towns of Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox ,Sheffield and Stockbridge. The agreement is to clean up the third and final segment of the Housatonic River, which is contaminated with PCBs from GE's former plant in Pittsfield.

The catch is, all of the five towns received hush money and they left Lee, MA out to dry as an unwilling recipient of a planned PCB dump and would send millions of cubic yards of toxic sediment to Lee, sparking concerns over health, property, and environmental injustice.

The planned PCB dump- which is being euphemistically called an ‘upland disposal facility’ - and weirdly sited in a quarry, on a ridge overlooking the very same Housatonic river. Experts have cited poor geological conditions. risk to water supply and the inevitability of leaks. 

A lawn sign in Lee, Massachusetts, designed by Reed Anderson of Great Barrington, calls for no local dumps for PCB waste from General Electric .// Source - Image Taken In Lee, MA

Dr. DeSimone, a surficial geology and geomorphology expert with 38 years’ experience—including teaching at RPI, Williams, and Bennington—has mapped PFOA-contaminated regions in NY and VT. He previously reviewed the geology of the proposed PCB landfill site in Lee, MA, evaluating surficial and bedrock conditions. In his opinion:

“The bottom line is the geology of the proposed PCB and landfill location is very likely to result in leachate contamination of surficial and bedrock aquifers if leachate penetrates the landfill liners. Based upon site geology, PCB disposal in a landfill in this location is a very poor choice that may result in PCB contamination of the sand and gravel aquifer and the underlying Stockbridge marble aquifer."

Lee’s Select Board is fighting back, suing GE and Monsanto, challenging the EPA, and withdrawing from the five-town committee. Officials insist no compensation can justify turning the town into a PCB disposal site, making this a defining local fight against corporate power.

Bob Jones, Select Board Member, and former Select Board Chair, has long had a dog in this fight. Bob Jones won a seat on the Lee, MA, Selectboard in a landslide election in May 2021 on a platform opposing a proposed PCB dump, unseating longtime incumbent David Consolati and signaling a major political shift in the town. 

According to Bob Jones, 

“We're demanding that there be no more toxic waste dumps in Berkshire County, none. We were handed this toxic waste mess by corrupt corporations of the past. It is our responsibility not to pass this nasty waste on to the next generation.”

New media voices are also joining the fray, a choir anti-pcb voices coming from the Berkshires. One such is The And So It Flows podcast is a show hosted by Leslie Gabriel that explores topics related to water, including water music, news, culture, and environmental issues. It airs on WTBR 89.7 FM and is available on major podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.

According to Leslie Gabriel, host and producer of the And So It Flows podcast …

“It’s time to move forward and unleash the creativity of science through bioremediation—using nature’s own power of microbes and plants to safely break down toxins, restore ecosystems, and heal polluted places for good.”

A Deeper Look At The Issue

Dive in to the PCB issue below. Watch Mickey Friedman’s "Good Things To Life" documentary that highlights how GE’s promise of prosperity became a story of PCB pollution, betrayal, and resilience. With sharp focus and unflinching honesty, the film exposes corporate neglect while igniting a call for justice, accountability, and true community renewal.