Dr. Wayne Wilkins to Lead Discussion in Medicine and Movies Series

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Williamstown - Williamstown resident Dr. Wayne Wilkins '41 will lead a discussion on the film “Something the Lord Made,” as part of the Medicine and the Movies Series at Williams College on Tuesday, Nov. 8, in Griffin Hall, room 6 at 7:30 p.m. The film documents the development of the first operative procedure on a congenital heart abnormality and tells the legendary story of two men - a determined white surgeon, Alfred Blalock, and a talented black carpenter turned lab technician, Vivien Thomas – who defied racial restrictions and pioneered the medical field of heart surgery at John Hopkins Hospital in 1944. The duo’s patients are known as “blue babies” –infants who suffer from a congenital heart defect that turns them blue as they slowly suffocate. J. Alex Haller, professor emeritus of pediatric surgery at the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, who trained under Blalock and Thomas in the 1950s, was a primary consultant on the film. “A touching moment for me came when they operated on the first blue baby," he said. "As they operated and new blood began to flow into the infant’s heart, they took off the sheets and you saw the child’s color change from blue to pink - a miracle." Directed by Emmy winner Joseph Argent, the HBO film stars Alan Rickman (Blalock), Mos Def (Thomas) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Helen Taussing) along with Kyra Sedwick, Gabrielle Union and Charles S. Dutton. After the film, Dr. Wilkins will conduct a discussion about the key doctors and the history and the science of heart surgery.
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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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