Environmental groups sue Casella Waste in Southbridge
CHARLTON - A lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in
Worcester against Casella Waste Systems, Southbridge Recycling &
Disposal Park and the Town of Southbridge.
The suit
alleges the Southbridge landfill has been releasing toxic pollutants to
groundwater in Southbridge, Charlton and Sturbridge for years, resulting
in the widespread and increasing contamination of nearby drinking water
aquifers, residential drinking wells, wetlands and waterway.
In a press conference Friday, a representative of one of the
two lead plaintiffs, Toxics Action Center and Environment America Inc.,
as well as their attorneys, gave an overview of their lawsuit against
Casella.
Claire B.W. Miller, state director of Toxics
Action Center, said Casella consistently employs “sneaky and aggressive
strategies” to bully towns and expand their profits.
“Casella’s
business strategy pattern is to enter communities with an existing
trash facility and expand, expand, expand, while trying to disregard
local officials and concerned residents,” Ms. Miller said. “And, while
we have worked with communities to fight back, stand up to corporate
bullies and won, the impact of their lax pollution control is profound.”
To
date, Ms. Miller said there are 88 wells in Charlton and Sturbridge
that are polluted with one or more chemicals, as well as many wells that
have never been tested.
In addition, 36 homes are known
for exceeding safe drinking water standards, primarily for lead and 1,
4-dioxane, which the Federal Department of Energy recognizes as a
possible carcinogen, Ms. Miller said.
According to the
suit, the landfill’s groundwater contamination poses “an imminent and
substantial endangerment to human health and the environment” in
violation of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
In addition, the claim alleges that the landfill is
discharging pollutants to waters through hydrologically connected
groundwater without National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
Permit authorization.
Kevin Budris, staff attorney for the National Environmental
Law Center, is representing Toxic Action Center and Environment
Massachusetts, while James P. Vander Salm, an attorney out of
Longmeadow, is representing 99 individual neighbors of the landfill.
“The
organizations in this lawsuit, Toxic Actions (and) Environment
Massachusetts, are bringing claims under two different federal laws -
The Clean Water Act and The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,” Mr.
Budris said.
“The landfill’s own monitoring and testing
data shows that the landfill is producing a host of toxic pollutants at
the ground water surrounding and underneath the landfill site,” he
said.
Mr. Budris said these pollutants include lead,
iron, 1,4-dioxane, trichloroethylene, arsenic manganese, barium copper,
sulfate, chlorobenzene, chloroform, benzene, naphthalene and many
others.
The groups in this case allege the pollutants are
transported through the groundwater to two primary locations - the
wetlands that surround the landfill; and the drinking water aquifer that
supply drinking water to homes in Charlton, Sturbridge and Southbridge,
Mr. Budris said.
“The landfill’s pollutant discharge is
continuous and ongoing and each day a discharge is a violation under
the Clean Water Act,” Mr. Budris said. “In the lawsuit, the groups are
seeking the end to these discharges to the wetland, are seeking
remediation of the existing pollution in the wetland and are going to
ask the court to force the defendants to pay appropriate civil penalties
for past history of violations of the Clean Water Act at this site.”
Ultimately
through the lawsuit, Mr. Budris said Toxic Action Center and
Environment Massachusetts hope to force the landfill to comply with
federal pollution laws, prevent further pollutant releases from the
site, remediate the environmental harm caused by the landfill and ensure
full access to safe drinking water for all those who risk
contamination.
Mr. Vander Salm said the 99 neighbors are situated on four
roads around the northern end of the landfill and share the claim with
Toxic Action and Environment Massachusetts under the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act.
In addition, Mr. Vander
Salm said the 99 neighbors also have “common law” claims for property
damage and damage to the quality of their lives.
“The
landfill has been a nuisance, to put it mildly, to my clients for a long
time,” Mr. Vander Salm said. “It has severely impaired the quality of
their lives and the value of their property as well. And they seek
compensation in this lawsuit for the damage to their lives, to the
stress it has caused to their family, for the damage it has caused to
their property and they seek to have the environment cleaned up or they
seek injunctions from the court to prevent further ... pollution and to
clean up the pollution that exists.”
Mr. Vander Salm said his clients do not just bring claims of groundwater contamination but also noise and odor pollution claims.
In
Southbridge, the town election on Tuesday has a non-binding ballot
question asking if the town manager should be instructed to negotiate an
agreement with Casella Waste Systems, which operates the landfill on
Barefoot Road, doing business as the Southbridge Recycling and Disposal
Park. The proposed agreement is for continued management of solid waste
activities, to include land currently used by the municipal airport and
other property near the existing landfill.
Casella Waste
Systems has run the 37-year-old landfill since 2003. It is expected to
reach capacity in May 2018 if it does not expand. Casella has an
application in to the state Department of Environmental Protection to
use four parcels within the landfill’s existing 51-acre footprint that
could add up to four years to the landfill’s life if approved by the
state and local Board of Health.
Introducing himself as a
member of the community group CleanWells, a father of two and a
resident of the neighborhood, Christian Bousque said he wants to see the
landfill expansion stopped and the landfill closed down and cleaned up.
And, Mr. Bousque said, he won’t be satisfied until all of those three objectives are met.
“When
you think about how long this has been going on and the fact that
Casella is still seeking to expand...It boggles my mind,” Mr. Bousque
said. “To me, it’s proof that they are willing to put profit before
people.”
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