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Public health nurse Kayla Donnelly-Winters reported increased numbers of Lyme disease on Wednesday.

Pittsfield Health Officials Want To Curb Tick-borne Illnesses

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Board of Health is considering its options to reduce the spread of tick-borne diseases.
 
The Health Department has been noticing a steady increase in tick-borne illnesses recently and is now wondering what options it has to help control it.
 
"Lyme, HGA, and babesiosis, have increased from 2016 to 2017. I saw a few more cases of Lyme in the past day or two. That Lyme case makes 113, 114 now compared to 87 last year," Public health nurse Kayla Donnelly-Winters said.
 
Donnelly-Winters said the numbers have been rising across the county with Pittsfield and Great Barrington toward the top of the number of incidents. In 2014, there were only 51 cases of Lyme in Pittsfield, which jumped to 82 last year. The increases in other tick-borne illness are rising at about the same pace, though with lesser numbers.
 
"This year was obviously worse. I don't know if it is an increase in reporting or if it is an increase of tick-borne illness," she said.
 
She said the rising numbers could be attributed to more health officials testing and reporting for it because of a greater awareness than before.
 
Board of Health member Dr. Alan Kulberg said, even so, the numbers will be greatly underreported still. He said in many cases Lyme is obvious and a practitioner will diagnosis it without doing lab tests. The lab tests at Berkshire Medical Center are the ones reported to the state Department of Public Health.
 
"Most come from the ER because people get so sick," Donnelly-Winters said of the tests that are ordered.
 
Donnelly-Winters spent much of her summer focused on getting information out to the public about it. She has had tables at Third Thursday, did radio advertisements, and passed out informational fliers about it. But mostly the information was for how residents can protect themselves.
 
She will now join Health Director Gina Armstrong at a symposium focused on providing information and tools for preventions and answering questions about Lyme. She said the goal is to start thinking about the next steps.
 
Board of Health Chairman Jay Green likened the discussion to mosquito control. Every year the city pays to be part of the Berkshire County Mosquito Control Project to reduce mosquito breeding grounds, monitor populations, test for the presence of diseases and then sprays in response to disease prevalence.
 
"We spend a whole three-hour board meeting every year gearing up for mosquitoes," Board of Health member Steve Smith said.
 
Green said since joining the disease numbers related to mosquitoes have decreased. He wondered if the board should start considering a similar program for ticks.
 
"These numbers show that something has to be done," Green said. "I feel over the last year we've been helpless with it."
 
Green said it may not have to be a program like that, but maybe enhancing public education so people know the risks and ways to prevent it may be enough. Donnelly-Winters said possible proactive steps will be discussed at the symposium and she will report back on options in the future.
 
Donnelly-Winters also monitors influenza, which starts to come into season in October and extends through the winter. So far, the season hasn't quite hit Pittsfield, she reported.
 
"As of right now the flu activity is minimal," she said.
 
But she expects that to change as the fall fades into winter. Donnelly-Winters has spent multiple days giving out flu shots to hundreds of city employees. 
 
"We are almost out of vaccine. I think we have 12 left," Donnelly-Winters said.
 
Lastly, she reported that the new prescription drop box has been installed at Flynn's Pharmacy, becoming the first pharmacy in the county to have such one. The boxes are there for residents to get rid of old medications, particularly addictive pain pills. The boxes have traditionally been located at Police Departments.
 
"A lot of people feel uncomfortable going to the police station to drop the medications off," Donnelly-Winters said. "We're going to see how it works for a year and then go from there and see if we can get other pharmacies on board."

Tags: board of health,   mosquito,   ticks,   

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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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