General Electric presented its new proposal this week for moving toxic waste from the Housatonic River to disposal sites in Lee, Massachusetts, and out of state.
The public previously criticized the company for not thoroughly investigating the use of rail.
Many at the meeting Wednesday night in Pittsfield praised GE for revising its proposal to transport toxic waste using fewer trucks.
GE project manager Matt Calacone said the new plan calls for pumping 79% of the waste from the river and moving it in pipes to a disposal site in Lee without using trucks. Another 17% would be moved by rail and trucks.
"We're minimizing the use of trucking alone with only 4% of the project materials transported solely by truck. This approach results in the the fewest local round trip truck miles for all the alternatives we evaluated," he said.
Pittsfield resident Valerie Anderson recalled waste dripping from trucks during the first two miles of the river cleanup. Anderson, who is also a member of the Citizens Coordinating Council, asked how GE would prevent trucks from leaking this time.
Calacone said trucks will be fitted with a pre-formed plastic liner that would be dumped along with the waste. He said new liners would be installed in for each new trip.
GE's plan listed which roads would be used by trucks. They include a small section of U.S. Route 20 and Massachusetts Route 183, along with smaller roads.
Leigh Davis, the vice-chair of the Great Barrington Select Board, asked for more clarification on the exact truck routes and and how many years they'll be used. Davis was recently elected to be the new state representative of the third Berkshire district.
"Especially for those people that will be looking at trucks for years going down potentially in front of their homes and their schools," she said. "They should really get a detailed look at which roads are being impacted specifically."
Some at the meeting, such as Lee Select Board member Bob Jones, continued to press for a cleanup that sends more waste out of state and less to a dump that's slated to be built in the town of Lee.
"I can see putting [it] on rail cars and taking [it] out of the area to pre-existing dumps in other parts of the country that we have already paid for," Jones said. He said these facilities aren't on the main street in "some quaint little town."
Dean Tagliaferro, who oversees the Housatonic River project for the EPA, said it was the agency that decided to build a disposal site in the town of Lee, not GE.
"We decided the best remedy was on-site disposal. We did not pick all off-site proposal. That's just putting a burden on another community," he said.
In 2016 the EPA had proposed shipping all PCB waste out of state.
The EPA is asking the public to submit comments on the transportation plan by mid-January.
