Lenox hosts presentation on Housatonic clean-up

LENOX – The board of selectmen recently received a presentation by Christopher Young, president of the chemical clean-up company Bio Tech Restorations, with cautious optimism.

The presentation to the selectmen followed a presentation to the general public by Pres. Young at Lenox Town Hall the day before.

The presentation was arranged by Tim Gray, executive director of the Housatonic River Initiative (HRI). HRI has been a long-time advocate for allowing Bio Tech to try its clean up process on PCB-contaminated sites near the Housatonic.

The reason for this enthusiasm is that Biotech has already managed to clean up a PCB contaminated site in California, which the state EPA subsequently cleared for residential development.

“Everyone has done bench scale testing, but no one has gotten into the field and had site clean ups signed off by an agency [until Bio Tech],” said Mr. Gray during the presentation.

Bio Tech’s process involves introducing a batch of enzymes into the soil. Normally, soil bacteria are inhibited from breaking down PCBs by the chlorine in them.

“It’s the chlorine, it’s the process of chlorinating these compounds that causes the problem [prevents bacteria from breaking down chlorinated chemicals],” said Mr. Young. “What we have found is that in the presence of these chlorinated materials the bacteria in the soil cannot secrete the enzymes necessary…to break down the food they need to survive.”

Bio Tech’s enzymes stimulate the bacteria to produce the enzymes that the chlorine in PCBs inhibit, allowing the bacteria to break down the PCBs.

Bio Tech has recently taken samples from the Housatonic River area to begin the process of seeing whether they’ll be able to replicate the results they had in California in Massachusetts.

Mr. Young and Mr. Gray also talked about the possibility of injecting the enzymes directly into the floodplain, which would alleviate the need to dig up and disturb it. Mr. Young said injecting the enzymes into the soil had been done to a limited extent in California.

Still, any soil from the river would need to be dredged and dewatered before being treated, although Mr. Young said the dredging could be done in a low impact manner. Theoretically Bio Tech could also treat the sediments in situ, although Mr. Young said that a way to do that has  yet to be devised.

Currently treating the sediments involves laying them out in windrows, after which they are treated with Bio Tech’s enzymes.

The alternative to treating PCB contaminated soil and sediments is putting it in PCB dumps, either in Massachusetts or out of state, two things that the HRI is opposed to.

“Why do we send it to another community when there’s a technology that might be able to…stop the dumps and treat it right here?” said Mr. Gray.

Mr. Young also said that treating the sediments was cheaper than sending them out of state.

“We think ultimately the numbers will carry some weight with our friends at GE,” said Mr. Young.

General Electric (GE) is responsible for the PCB contamination in the Housatonic and is footing the bill for the clean up.

Mr. Young, like his father and grandfather before him, used to work for Dow Chemical and is a former pesticide formulation chemist.

“My kids like to use the Star Wars parlance; they say I’ve come in from the Dark Side,” said Mr. Young.

Mr. Young said that Bio Tech Restorations would be holding another forum for the public once the lab results from the samples they have taken are known

“Best case scenario is that we are able to convince the folks at [the] EPA…of the validity of the science. I think they are already, we just haven’t given them everything that they need,” said Mr. Young, in comments to The Beacon. “I’m hoping that once we do [get EPA approval] that we’ll be in a position then by next summer to do a pilot study here.”

Throughout the presentation, the selectmen asked a number of questions of Mr. Young, and seemed quite receptive to his company and the process they were presenting.

“I think the phrase I was left with was the overwhelming proof of performance before you step forward,” said Lenox Board of Selectmen Chairman Kenneth L. Fowler in comments to The Beacon, indicating while he liked the process, what was now required was proof it could work for the Housatonic.

Chairman Fowler said he was particularly impressed the proposed process would not create a bunch of material that could never be used again.

“I’m enthusiastically optimistic,” he said. “What they do here could be the next generation of what we do to deal with the mess we made in previous generations.”

Another person attending the forum was 4th Berkshire District State House Candidate Lee Scott Laugenour.

“I’m delighted that we’re pursuing ways to get all the PCBs out of the river. I agree with HRI completely that the goal should be a fishable, swimable river,” said Mr. Laugenour, in comments to The Beacon.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on November 1, 2012. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry