BOSTON, Mass. - A group of concerned citizens joined lawmakers and environmental experts in Boston on Thursday to bring attention to pollutants in the Housatonic River.

The crowd of Lee residents gathered outside Faneuil Hall believe General Electric hasn’t done enough to protect them from harmful PCBs being removed from the river and dumped in a nearby disposal area.

According to the EPA, the Housatonic River and its floodplain are heavily contaminated with PCBs which originated from a General Electric facility in Pittsfield. The pollution occurred for multiple decades in the mid-20th Century.

As part of a 2020 settlement, General Electric has been working to rid the river of the harmful chemicals, but Lee Town Administrator Chris Brittain believes there are many safer options.

“The cleanup plan involves a million cubic yards of PCBs sediment to be left in the Town of Lee, and we know there are better ways to clean that up,” Brittain said.

Those in attendance at Thursday’s protest all traveled via bus from Lee.

“What we’re asking for is to sit down at the negotiating table and work out a deal,” said select board member Bob Jones. “It’s not going to be difficult, this is an opportunity.”

John Rumpler, clean water director for Environment America, said there are other solutions which could better protect the residents of Lee, as soil from the contaminated river could be harmful for years to come.

“I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to realize that dredging up toxic waste from a river and then dumping it in a site just a few hundred feet away from that river on top of an aquifer does not make sense,” Rumpler said.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to General Electric for comment on the protest, but as of Thursday evening have yet to receive a response.