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Massachusetts environmental agency investigates source of oil sheen on Housatonic River

New England Public Media | By Nancy Eve Cohen
Published October 5, 2022 at 11:43 AM EDT
Deep water boom on the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, Mass.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Deep water boom on the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, Mass.

The Massachusetts environmental protection agency is investigating and cleaning up an oil slick on the Housatonic River in Pittsfield.

The Pittsfield Fire Department notified the DEP. of an oily sheen on the river on Friday. The department installed absorbent booms to contain the oil. The agency arrived and instructed state contractors to install deep water booms--and to clean up the oil and contaminated leaf litter.

The agency is continuing to investigate the source of the spill.

The DEP believes the sheen is petroleum-based. It submitted a sample to a lab to determine if PCBs are present.

The slick is in a stretch of the Housatonic River where General Electric and the EPA cleaned up PCBs from 2002 until 2006.

G.E. contaminated the river when it used PCBs until the 1970s to manufacture electrical transformers in Pittsfield.
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Regional News WESTERN MASSACHUSETTSENVIRONMENT
Nancy Eve Cohen
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.
See stories by Nancy Eve Cohen
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