In 1903, the General Electric Company (GE) acquired the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company’s industrial facility along the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Over the next 84 years, GE manufactured, serviced, and tested electrical transformers at the 324-acre facility. From about 1932 until 1977, GE used polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a coolant for their smaller transformers. Plastics, ordnance, and aerospace components were also manufactured on the site until the early 1990s using a variety of industrial chemicals. Decades of chemical use and improper disposal led to extensive contamination around the town as well as the entire length of the Housatonic River south to the Long Island Sound. The PCBs contaminated the water, sediments, riverbanks, and floodplain, as well as various species of fish and wildlife.

In 1998, the United States, the State of Connecticut and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts reached a settlement with GE regarding the release of PCBs from the Pittsfield facility. On October 19, 1999, a consent decree was executed requiring GE to clean up and/or fund the remediation of the Housatonic River under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). GE was also required to separately fund the restoration of natural resources injured by the release of PCBs. The company paid approximately $15 million with the funds divided between the two states.

A Natural Resource Trustee Subcouncil was organized to manage the settlement funds and complete restoration projects in Connecticut. It is comprised of the State of Connecticut, Department of the Interior (represented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)), and Department of Commerce (represented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)). To date, 26 projects have been completed throughout the Housatonic River watershed from the Massachusetts border to the mouth of the river.