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Meghan Marohn, 42, was last seen on March 27. Her car was found in Longcope Park in Lee two days later.

Body Found in Lee Believed to Be Missing School Teacher

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LEE, Mass. — Investigators located and recovered human remains presumed to be of 42-year-old Meghan Marohn, who was reported missing on March 29, according to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office.
 
On Thursday evening, a civilian discovered the remains in a heavily wooded area near Fox Drive in Lee. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner took custody of the remains to make a positive identification.
 
Investigators are still actively canvassing the area, and the evidence collected thus far indicates a high likelihood that the remains are that of Marohn.
 
Marohn's family reported her missing on March 29, and Lee Police located her black 2017 Subaru Impreza unlocked and unattended at Longcope Park that same day. Since then, Lee Police, Lee Fire, State Police from the Lee Barracks, State Police K9 and Airwing, State Police Special Emergency Response Team, Berkshire County Sheriff's Office, Albany (N.Y.) County Sheriff's Department, and the Berkshire Mountain Search and Rescue Team coordinated continuous searches for Marohn.
 
Marohn was a 10th-grade English teacher and poet at Shaker High School in Latham, N.Y., who had been on a leave of absence. She had reportedly been staying at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge. Her family said she enjoyed hiking and police believe she went for a walk after her car was found near a trail in Lee on March 27. There was no sign of tampering with her car and police were able to track her cell phone activity for a short time until the signal stopped.
 
Lee Police and state police responded to the scene. Authorities, including the Bethlehem, N.Y., Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Marohn's disappearance. That investigation remains ongoing.

Tags: missing persons,   

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River. 

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said. 

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years. 

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads. 

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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