Delegates from the town of Lee, Massachusetts are calling for a committee, focused on the cleanup of the Housatonic River, to dissolve before the end of the year— when it's scheduled to disband or extend its intergovernmental agreement.
The Housatonic Rest of River Municipal Committee consists of five river towns: Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox Sheffield and Stockbridge. It first formed a decade ago to advocate for common goals for a toxic waste river cleanup. At that time, it included the city of Pittsfield.
A majority vote is needed to change the current three-year term.
At a meeting Tuesday, committee members discussed whether to extend their three-year term past December.
As part of the EPA's cleanup plan, General Electric will build a PCB disposal site in Lee for lower concentrations of toxic waste.
Bob Jones is the chair of the Lee select board and also serves as a town representative on the committee. Jones says his town wants to manage the disposal facility on its own.
"I would not rely upon those other towns to oversee anything in regard to a toxic waste dump in our town. We want the oversight. We don't want that committee to have the oversight," Jones said.
Rene Wood, who represents Sheffield on the committee, suggested the towns who do wish to keep meeting, sign an agreement do so. And those who don't—not sign.
"There's still value in continuing to meet," she said.
Tom Matuszko, executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, who chairs the committee, said "Via this meeting, we are commencing renegotiations to determine if we would like to extend the [agreement].
The committee has not scheduled a vote on it.
