Letter: Mitts Will Work for the People

Letter to the Editor06:00PM / Sunday, October 27, 2024Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

It is a pleasure to endorse Marybeth Mitts as the next representative to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the Third Berkshire District.

As an independent candidate with an impressive public service background, I believe she will truly commit herself to working "For The People" and be responsive to the very important needs of all the constituents in our district.

Her opponent may have multiple endorsements; however, many are entrenched politicians that one cannot even get through to or receive any response from when problems that need to be addressed are brought to their attention. I know this from personal experience in highly important areas, i.e., internet access, severe housing problems and abuse of elderly and disabled individuals, of which I am one.

I think it is crucial for voters to vote for the person and what they stand for and the work they have done leading to their becoming a candidate.

I hope you will join me (as I have already done) and vote for Marybeth Mitts.

Rachel I. Branch
Dalton, Mass.

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EPA, GE Conducting Vernal Pool Study on Housatonic River

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
11:44AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A pilot study will determine the best way to remediate PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, from vernal pools in the Housatonic River.

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric held an open house for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border. Despite the rain, several people attended the event at the Berkshire Athenaeum.

EPA project manager Josh Fontaine explained that it is an evaluation of which remediation method to use for the remaining vernal pools in Reach 5A.

"We're going to be testing two different methods. One is an excavation method, which we already know has been very successful with another vernal pool cleaned up much earlier in the project," he said.

"And then the other is the application of two different carbon amendments. It would be the application of powdered activated carbon and the application of granulated activated carbon."

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned using these methods: five with excavation and five with active carbon; 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.

Fontaine said there is no frontrunner for methodology.

"We know the excavation method is effective, but we would like to see if the less invasive method of using the amendment will be as effective for potential use," he said.

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