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GE/Housatonic River Site in New England

Serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont & 10 Tribal Nations

Cleanup Agreements

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Consent Decree

The comprehensive remediation and restoration of the GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River Site is being performed pursuant to a court-ordered Consent Decree. The parties to the Decree include EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Attorney General’s Office, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, and Department of Environmental Protection, the State of Connecticut’s Attorney General’s Office and Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Department of Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the City of Pittsfield (“City”), the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority ("PEDA"), and the General Electric Company. The Decree was approved by the U.S. District Court on October 27, 2000.

The Consent Decree provides for cleanup of the Housatonic River, the former General Electric facility, several former oxbows of the river, contaminated floodplain properties along the river, contaminated groundwater, Allendale School, Silver Lake and Unkamet Brook. The Decree also provides for recovery by the governments from GE of costs incurred in implementing the Decree cleanups, and provides for activities and funding by GE to address damage to natural resources.

In addition, a Definitive Economic Development Agreement among GE, the City, and PEDA became effective as of the entry of the Decree, and provides for economic redevelopment of the GE facility. Moreover, to facilitate successful redevelopment, on April 30, 2002, EPA entered into a Prospective Purchaser agreement with the City and PEDA to eliminate potential legal hurdles to PEDA’s redevelopment.

  • Summary of Remediation and Restoration Agreements
  • Consent Decree (PDF) (409 pp, 14.3MB)
    Note:
    In reviewing this electronic version of the US et al v. General Electric Consent Decree, please be aware of the following:
    While the paragraph and section numbers of this electronic version are the same as the Consent Decree filed with the Court, the page numbers on this electronic version differ from those in the Consent Decree filed with the Court because of formatting differences. So, for persons who are referencing a portion of the Consent Decree, please use references to the particular paragraph number (noted by arabic numerals, e.g. 1, 2, 3) you are referencing. Thank you.
Appendix A Set of maps related to the Site:

A-1. GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River Site
A-2. GE Plant Area
A-3. Building 71 Consolidation Area
A-4. Hill 78 Consolidation Area
A-5. Unkamet Brook Area
A-6. Former Oxbow Areas
A-7. Silver Lake Area
A-8. GE Plastics Area
Appendix B EPA's Combined Action and EE/CA Approval Memorandum for the Upper Reach, dated and approved May 26, 1998. (PDF) (45 pp, 663K)
Appendix C EPA's Action Memorandum for the Allendale School Removal Action, dated and approved July 12, 1999. (PDF) (27 pp, 1.2MB)
Appendix D EPA's Action Memorandum for Removal Actions Outside the River, dated August 4, 1999, and approved August 5, 1999. (PDF) (67 pp, 3.7MB)
Appendix E

SOW for the Removal Actions Outside the River:
Appendix F Removal Action Work Plan for Upper ½ Mile Reach of Housatonic River, dated August 1999, and EPA's approval letter dated August 5, 1999.
Appendix G Draft Reissued RCRA Permit. (PDF) (38 pp, 477K)
Appendix H Administrative Consent Order to be executed by MADEP and Settling Defendant. (PDF) (30 pp, 221K)
Appendix I List of Property to Be Transferred to PEDA Pursuant to Definitive Economic Development Agreement. (PDF) (2 pp, 145K)
Appendix J Protocol for EPA Peer Review Process - Housatonic River. (PDF) (12 pp, 854K)
Appendix K Access and Services Agreement. (PDF) (12 pp, 101K)
Appendix L Model Grant of Environmental Restriction and Easement for Settling Defendant Property. (PDF) (29 pp, 67K)
Appendix M Model Subordination Agreement. (PDF) (3 pp, 8K)
Appendix N Model Grant of Conservation Easement and Restriction for Unkamet Brook Wetlands Area. (PDF) (11 pp, 79K)
Appendix O Model Grant of Environmental Restriction and Easement for Non-Settling Defendant Property. (PDF) (28 pp, 63K)
Appendix P Notice of Activity and Use Limitation. (PDF) (4 pp, 12K)
Appendix Q EREs, CERs and Conditional Solution Inspection Criteria and Requirements. (PDF) (4 pp, 200K)
Appendix R Model for Consent to Access to Property. (PDF) (3 pp, 33K)
Appendix S Model Confidentiality Agreement for Mediation, referenced in Section XXIV (Dispute Resolution). (PDF) (1 p., 5K)
Appendix T List of Designated Fill Properties. (PDF) (10 pp, 107K)
Appendix U List of Properties Owned by the City Subject to this Consent Decree. (PDF) (1 p., 11K)
Appendix V List of GE Documents Submitted to USEPA and MADEP from 1/1/98 through 7/31/99 Relating to Investigations and Response Actions Conducted by GE at the Site in that Time Period, Excluding Documents Submitted Under RCRA Permit, State ACOs, and Building 68 UAO. (PDF) (4 pp, 100K)
Appendix W List of GE Documents Submitted to Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Which Conveyed Site-Related Information: 1984 to Present. (PDF) (3 pp, 62K)
Exhibit C Health and Safety Protocal. (PDF) (3 pp, 8K)
Exhibit D Soil Management Protocol (For Settling Defendant Property). (PDF) (3 pp, 9K)
Soil Management Protocol (For Non-Settling Defendant Property). (PDF) (2 pp, 9K)
Exhibit E To Grant of Environmental Restriction and Easement (For Settling Defendant Property). (PDF) (3 pp, 14K)
To Grant of Environmental Restriction and Easement (For Non-Settling Defendant Property). (PDF) (3 pp, 14K)


United States' July 2000 Motion to Enter the Consent Decree
United States Motion to Enter Consent Decree. (PDF) (4 pp, 26K)
U.S. Motion for Leave to File Memorandum in Excess of Page Limit. (PDF) (3 pp, 18K)
United States Memorandum in Support of Motion to Enter Consent Decree. (PDF) (84 pp, 653K)
Exhibit 1 Public Comments Submitted on Proposed Consent Decree. (PDF) (341 pp, 7.2MB)
Exhibit 2 United States' Responses to Comments on Proposed Consent Decree. (PDF) (151 pp, 1.MB)
Exhibit 3 Declarations relating to the Responses to Comments (Olson, Tagliaferro, Janowski, Cutler, Fredette). (PDF) (36 pp, 343K)
Exhibit 4 Charts listing comments, commenters and responses to comments. (PDF) (24 pp, 276K)
Exhibit 5 Maps of the Site. (PDF) (3 pp, 216K)
Exhibit 6 Definitive Economic Development Agreement. (PDF) (68 pp, 612K)
Exhibit 7 April 2000 EPA Assurances to Public. (PDF) (4 pp, 49K)
Exhibit 8 Government Efforts to Obtain Public Input In Connection with the GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River Site. (PDF) (6 pp, 56K)
Exhibit 9 Preliminary Estimate of Natural Resource Damages ("NRD") prepared by Industrial Economics. (PDF) (170 pp, 3.3MB)
Exhibit 10 Evaluation Materials Summarizing NRD and Explaining Proposed NRD Settlement. (PDF) (80 pp, 1.3MB)
Exhibit 11 Index to Administrative Record for Settlement. (PDF) (3 pp, 45K)
Exhibit 12 Index to Administrative Record for Reissued RCRA Permit. (PDF) (2 pp, 14K)
Exhibit 13 Affidavit of Chief Richard Velky. (PDF) (8 pp, 205K)
Exhibit 14 Transcript of Public Hearing re: Permit under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as Amended, dated December 2, 1999. (PDF) (36 pp, 208K)
Exhibit 15 EPA Guidance on Non-Time-Critical Removal Actions. (PDF) (7 pp, 76K)
Exhibit 16 EPA Guidance on Principal Threat and Low Level Threat Wastes. (PDF) (4 pp, 165K)
Exhibit 17 Final Reissued RCRA Permit, signed July 18, 2000. (PDF) (36 pp, 371K)
Exhibit 18 Letter from Remo Del Gallo to Bryan Olson, June 9, 2000. (PDF) (1 p., 34K)
Memorandum of Law in Opposition of Entry of the Consent Decree

United States' Reply Memorandum in Support of Motion to Enter Consent Decree (PDF) (47 pp, 3.9MB)

Memorandum and Order Re Entry of Consent Decree and Final Judgment, October 31, 2000 (PDF) (4 pp, 207K)

Submission of Agreed-to Non-Material Modifications of Consent Decree and Appendicies, First Modication of Consent Decree, Notice of Appearance (PDF) (29 pp, 1.5MB) (the oversized maps are in the Notice of appearance section)

Stipulated Settlement of Dispute Resolution Proceeding and Second Modification of Consent Decree (PDF) (18 pp, 576K)

Motion of Plaintiff United States to Modify Consent Decree and Statement of Work; and the proposed Third Modification of Consent Decree. March 2005

Motion of Plaintiff United States to Modify Consent Decree and Statement of Work; and the proposed Fourth Modification of Consent Decree.

Fifth Modification of Consent Decree (PDF) (29 pp, 669K)

Summary of Soil PCB Performance Standards (PDF) (2 pp, 95K)

Sixth Modification to the Consent Decree, RCRA Permit Modification (PDF) (9 pp, 27K)

Seventh Modification to the Consent Decree (PDF) (17 pp, 174K)

Eighth Modification of Consent Decree (PDF) (12 pp, 91K)

Ninth Modification of Consent Decree (PDF) (15 pp, 239K)

Tenth Modification of Consent Decree (PDF) (15 pp, 136K)

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RCRA Agreements

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Definitive Economic Development Agreement

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1½ Mile Berkshire Gas Settlement Agreement

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Cost Recovery

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Serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, & 10 Tribal Nations

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