© 2025 New England Public Media

FCC public inspection files:
WGBYWFCRWNNZWNNUWNNZ-FMWNNI

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@nepm.org or call 413-781-2801.
PBS, NPR and local perspective for western Mass.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Remembering Thelma Barzottini, who fought to clean up PCBs in Pittsfield with a smile

Thelma Barzottini fought to clean up toxic PCBs in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and in the Housatonic River.
Lynn Lavelle
/
Courtesy
Thelma Barzottini fought to clean up toxic PCBs in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and in the Housatonic River.

People at a meeting this week on the Housatonic River cleanup paused to remember Pittsfield, Massachusetts, resident Thelma Barzottini, who died at 91 in February.

Members of the Citizens Coordinating Council said she was a sweet person, and was determined when it came to PCB removal.

In a meeting where division between river advocates and government regulators was evident, remembering Barzottini brought people together.

They described her as passionate, kind, well-dressed and a hoot.

Activist Tim Gray said she was one of the first to join the PCB cleanup fight nearly 30 years ago.

EPA attorney Tim Conway said he couldn't escape her push for answers.

"She'd ask a question, and I'd think, oh I thought I'd get through the night without that question being asked," Conway said. "And then the next thing — she'd ask me about my family. I will miss her."

Her passing is a reminder of how long the community has been fighting for a cleanup — so long that both sides have gotten to know and sometimes appreciate each other.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
Related Content