At its workshops in April 2011, EPA and its consultants covered many topics relating to how another large construction project would affect the Housatonic and possible health effects of PCB exposure (even long-term exposure).
Restoration of Complex Ecosystem Impossible
 Professor Rob Brooks, a national expert on river systems, tells you that EPA’s claim that the complex ecosystem of the Rest of River can be restored after dredging – based on the two miles already completed – is totally false. |
Health Effects of PCBs
 Does environmental exposure to PCBs cause cancer in people? Dr. Phillip Guzelian, a medical doctor and toxicologist, says no and explains why. |
 Dr. Russ Keenan tells you about how a Massachusetts Department of Public Health study of Berkshire County contradicts EPA’s assumptions in the Human Health Risk Assessment, and why that matters. |
Ecological Questions
 Professor Rob Brooks, who has studied the Housatonic River for more than thirty years, tells you that the Housatonic ecosystem is thriving, including rare species found in few other places in Massachusetts. |
 Dr. Aram Calhoun, a professor of wetland ecology, says that dredging would forever alter the vernal pools in the Housatonic River floodplain, destroying essential habitats. |
Professor Rob Brooks, a national expert on river systems, tells how changes to the river valley will be much more severe than any changes in the last 200 years, destroying one of the last forested river corridors in New England. |
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 Despite what EPA says about restoration, there are serious impediments to restoring the river’s unique and complex ecosystem according to wetland ecology expert Dennis Lowry. |
According to Dennis Lowry, a senior wetland ecologist, there are no “active restoration” methods for the Housatonic River that would allow it to continue to meander. |
Professor Rob Brooks, who has studied the Housatonic for 30 years, says that bank erosion is responsible for some of the uniquely diverse habitats of the Upper Housatonic. |
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Incorrect Assumptions
| Dr. Russ Keenan, a national expert in human health risk assessment, says that EPA’s Human Health Risk Assumptions are contradicted by more reasonable assumptions and common sense. |
 Dennis Lowry, a senior wetland ecologist,debunks the claim that five sites cited by EPA are evidence that the Rest of River can be restored after PCB removal. |
EPA used the restoration of a stream at Loring Air Force Base in Maine as a restoration “success story.” Hear why comparing EPA’s work at Loring to the Housatonic is comparing apples to oranges from Professor Rob Brooks. |
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| EPA’s contractors have been emphasizing the fact that its evaluations were “peer reviewed.” Dr. Russ Keenan, a national expert on human health risk assessments, says that’s not any sort of scientific seal of approval. |
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