THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, May 26, 2017
Page 6
LAWSUIT| from page 5
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Wheelabrator calls allegations “false” Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc., which last month applied for a permit with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) that would allow the company to expand its ash landfill, issued a statement denouncing CLF’s threatened lawsuit. “The assertions by CLF are false, demonstrate a lack of understanding of the regulations and appear to be designed only to interfere with Wheelabrator Technologies’ application with the state Department of Environmental Protection to continue operating the monofill,” said Kendrigan. “Wheelabrator is an environmental services company that processes post-recycled solid waste from eastern Massachusetts municipalities and businesses into clean, renewable energy. Protecting public health and the environment is our highest priority and we operate in a manner that is protec-
35 Revere Beach Pkwy. Medford * (781) 393-4899
165 Endicott Street Danvers * (978) 777-1290
tive of the environment,” Kendrigan said. “We are in full compliance with stringent state and federal air, water and solid waste regulation, and our operating permits have been maintained and renewed without exception in Saugus,” he said. When asked by The Saugus Advocate to respond to specific allegations or demands in the CLF notice, company officials declined to answer questions or elaborate further on Kendrigan’s comments. Wheelabrator’s modification project – if approved by MassDEP – would add five years of life and about 520,000 tons of ash and cover soil to the ash landfill. The project involves filling in two valleys at the landfill site with ash generated by the plant. “CLF intends to seek a civil injunction, as provided for under section 7002 of RCRA, requiring Wheelabrator to install, operate, and maintain a ground water monitoring system and prohibiting any additional disposal of ash at, or expansion of, the landfill unless and until a groundwater monitoring system is installed and a sufficient amount of data is collected to determine whether there is contamination leaching from the landfill,” CLF’s attorney wrote in her letter. “CLF also intends to seek declaratory relief, civil penalties, and an award of the costs of litigation, including attorney and expert witness fees, under section 7002 of RCRA,” she said. Wheelabrator’s alleged violations of RCRA have been “ongoing” and date back “many years,” according to CLF Attorney Kirstie Pecci. “Despite this significant hazard, the landfill has operated for decades without monitoring its impact or creating an adequate barrier from the families and businesses that call Saugus home,” Pecci said. “It’s time for Wheelabrator to answer for its years of neglect and finally commit to water quality monitoring as the law requires and the community demands,” she said. How CLF’s case began
It was only recently that CLF learned Wheelabrator wasn’t conducting groundwater monitoring of the area surrounding the ash landfill, according to Pecci. As part of a research involving the review of 20 ash and solid waste landfills around the state, CLF filed a public records request for groundwater monitoring reports for the last two years. When MassDEP granted access to the Saugus ash landfill files, there were no groundwater monitoring reports, Pecci noted. MassDEP staff reviewed the Saugus files again and still couldn’t find any groundwater monitoring reports, she added. Finally, Robert Brown, an attorney from MassDEP’s office of the general counsel, confirmed in a telephone conversation with CLF that there was no quarterly groundwater monitoring at the Saugus site, according to Pecci. “The leachate is collected and tested in the landfill, but there is no testing to make certain that leachate is not leaving the landfill,” Pecci said. “Of all of the landfills we looked at, the only one that has no monitoring also has no liner. And, the unlined landfill just exacerbates the situation,”she said. “The reason groundwater monitoring is required is because you don’t know if any leachate is escaping into the environment unless you test for leachate escaping. That’s the issue. There has been no groundwater testing around that landfill as far as we can tell. And, I don’t think many people were aware of that,” she said. MassDEP satisfied site is monitored Wheelabrator’s “only potentially protective systems that are in place are a slurry wall surrounding the landfill and a leachate collection system,” according to the CLF notice. MassDEP spokesman Ed Coletta confirmed that no groundwater monitoring reports exist for the Wheelabrator ash landfill because the company it is not
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