EPA extends comment period on Housatonic plan

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

LENOX, Mass. — The public is getting an additional two months to submit comments on a proposed environmental cleanup of the Housatonic River.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the deadline was pushed to Oct. 1 from Aug. 8 in response to several requests for more time to analyze the proposal.

The EPA in June unveiled its 13-year, $613 million proposal for a cleanup of PCB contamination from a 10-mile stretch of the river south of Pittsfield.

The Berkshire Eagle reports the plan calls on General Electric to remove through dredging and capping up to 90 percent of the chemicals from designated areas that would be drained, excavated and refilled.

The cleanup is needed because GE released polychlorinated biphenyls, a probable cancer-causing agent, into the river from its Pittsfield transformer plant from 1932 until 1977.