Nancy Eve Cohen | New England Public Radio | September 30, 2020
https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2020/09/30/dam-removal-pittsfield-housatonic
Over the past two decades more than 60 dams have been torn down in Massachusetts with the goal of restoring river habitats and improving safety. One came down this year on the West Branch of the Housatonic River with yet another, more neighborhood-focused goal.
The Housatonic River takes many twists and turns from the Massachusetts Berkshires to Long Island Sound. One way to picture it is to imagine a squiggly letter Y. The right or East Branch is where toxic PCBs from the former General Electric plant have been dug up. The tail of the Y includes the stretch that GE has yet to clean up.
The left or West Branch, the site of the former dam, winds through a Pittsfield neighborhood known as the West Side.
“It was a neighborhood hangout for all the neighborhood kids,” said 59-year-old Tony Jackson.
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