LEE, Mass. - “I hereby proclaim that Oct. 18 be known as ‘Save the Housatonic Day’ in Lee,” said Lee Selectboard Chair Gordon Bailey. 

The Town of Lee naming Oct. 18 "Save the Housatonic Day" is meant to shine a spotlight on Berkshire County's decades-long effort to clean the river of PCBs.

General Electric and Monsanto are accused of polluting the river during their operation in the area. 

“We chose the anniversary of the clean water act for this because we have an example here unfortunately of an area of water that could be cleaned if we can get people to do the right thing,” said town administrator Chris Brittain.

General Electric and the EPA have been working on ridding PCBs from the Housatonic River but there has been disagreement with the company's plan to have a dump site in Lee. Instead the town would like to see other options explored. 

“A true cleanup effort that removes and destroys the PCBs rather than relocating them is the only acceptable solution. The people of the Berkshires deserve a restored river that once again serves as the heart of their community,” said select board member Robert Jones.

Marilyn Wyatt is a part of the PCB advisory committee and joined because she wanted to help Lee after her brother passed away.

She says she thought he got sick from living in a contaminated area.  

“I had a brother who lived beside a superfund site for a number of years he had a well he was dependent on well water it was directly on the perimeter of this superfund site and very sadly he died of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when he was 35 years old,” Wyatt said.

The town is hoping its lawsuit, alleging the companies knew PCBs impacted human health and the environment, will bring further discussion to what they would like to see happen.

“If we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was damage done to the citizens of Lee that will put us in a position to negotiate all of the other things including the dump and the clean-up of the river,” Jones said.