Woods Pond

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As I continue to investigate the traces General Electric left throughout the Berkshires, I found myself on daily hikes around Woods Pond in Lenoxdale, MA. Captivated by its lush natural beauty juxtaposed with signs warning visitors that the pond is highly contaminated with PCBs, I couldn’t help but question, how could a place so tranquil have such a turbulent history? 

Woods Pond is a man-made pond created by a dam GE built to not only control the water flow but also as a barrier to try to keep the majority of PCBs from moving downstream. The pond is the deepest basin of the most highly contaminated stretch of the Housatonic River and it’s sediment is found to have some of the highest concentrations of PCBs. 

It’s topical. GE and the EPA have a 13+ year plan to cleanup the river, including Woods Pond. Sounds cute, right? Wrong. They only plan to cleanup around 25% of the polluted waterway and in the process, disturb natural habitats and our community by dredging and driving hundreds of trucks filled with toxic sludge throughout the Berkshires daily. Where’s it going? GE purchased a parcel of land right next to Woods Pond with plans to build a toxic waste dump. This piece of land also sits directly on top of an aquifer. 

The plans are in place and the permits have been filed. GE and the EPA have every intention of following through with a “cleanup” that is likely going to make a bigger mess than it was to begin with. It’s not that they shouldn’t clean up the mess they made, it’s that it needs to be done thoughtfully, carefully, and sustainably. This plan is not any of those things. Personally, I don’t think it’s too late for change and I believe that starts with awareness.  

I grew up two miles away from this Superfund site in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The immensity of the windowless factories and glowing lights of the smokestacks at the General Electric plant had a mysterious nature that has fed my insatiable interest in industry from a young age. By the time I was born in 1996, GE had ceased all operations at their Pittsfield plant. All I knew was the trace they left behind; a myriad of lands and bodies of water polluted with extremely toxic and cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that were manufactured by Monsanto before being banned in 1979. 

I’ve returned to trace my own movement in front of one of the many GE landfills, Hill 78. This specific site is Allendale Elementary School. It was built on PCB-drenched soil and sits directly next to GE’s Hill 78, which is a 6-acre designated dump for various hazardous chemicals, including PCBs. The EPA monitors the air at Allendale Elementary annually but with rising global temperatures, the concentration of airborne PCBs will inevitably continue to grow. This school is still open despite the risks and proximity to such a prolific toxic landfill. Students, educators, and nearby residents of the school have alarmingly high rates of cancer diagnoses, with no family history. It’s an ongoing story of horrific profits-over-people corporate greed. GE and Monsanto knew of the dangers and knowingly dumped hundreds of thousands of pounds of PCBs throughout Berkshire County and beyond. This has been a long fought problem that still continues today. 

Painting Details: 

Hill 78 (2024)

72" x 72"

oil and acrylic on canvas