LEGAL DOCKET

CFE's attorneys, along with help from UConn law students, defend the environmental rights of Connecticut citizens in and out of court.
 
CFE Clean Water Act Notices to Five Companies Result in Landmark Enforcement Actions
On September 11, 2007, CFE filed Notices of Intent to sue under the Clean Water Act against five companies who were chronically violating their discharge permits. On January 29, 2008, four of the companies agreed to pay a total of at least $613,000 in penalties and environmental projects, and a lawsuit was filed against the fifth. The four companies are Electric Boat, Cytec, Whyco and Allegheny Ludlum. The lawsuit was filed against Atlantic Wire in state court cooperatively with the Connecticut Attorney General for a number of events, one of which killed hundreds of crabs in Branford Harbor.

"From the beginning, our goal has been to get the government to act in a meaningful and timely manner against these chronic violators, and that is exactly what has occurred," said CFE Senior Staff Attorney, Roger Reynolds.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the actions "the most important combined [enforcement] result in recent years, perhaps decades."

The cases were filed because each of the companies had engaged in repeated permit violations over the course of years and no enforcement action had been taken by the State.

Shortly after the notices were filed, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Attorney General's Office indicated their intent to work cooperatively with CFE to prosecute the actions. CFE agreed on the condition that meaningful enforcement actions would be taken that would involve significant penalties, environmental benefit for the affected rivers, injunctions and automatic future penalties. The final enforcement actions achieve all of these goals.

The consent orders:

• require payment of at least $613,000 in penalties and environmental projects for illegal discharges of toxics, heavy metals, solids, acid, oil, grease and other substances;

• order investigation and elimination of the illegal discharges;

• order inadequate spill plans and practices to be studied and revised (for Electric Boat and Cytec); and

• assess automatic penalties for future permit violations.

The payments will go to a variety of environmental projects, some of which will directly benefit the affected rivers cited in the notice. The lawsuit against Atlantic Wire will be jointly prosecuted in state superior court by Connecticut Fund for the Environment and the Attorney General's Office and will seek an order to eliminate the discharge, pay substantial fines and mitigate environmental damage.

As a result of the CFE notices and the investigation, the DEP has reorganized its water enforcement program and has hired a new staff person to oversee it. CFE will be seeking additional funding for DEP enforcement in the 2008 legislative session to achieve these objectives.

Specific Companies:

Atlantic Wire - Court action being served on Atlantic Wire for an order to cease discharges and to pay penalties for illegal discharges, one of which resulted in the death of hundreds of blue crabs in Branford Harbor.

Whyco - $300,000 in Penalties and Projects including entirely eliminating their discharge to the Naugatuck River through reduction and recycling.

Allegheny Ludlum - $182,000 in Penalties and Projects including entirely eliminating their most problematic discharge through reduction and recycling.

Cytec - $56,000 in Penalties and Projects and ordered to institute spill control measures.

Electric Boat - $75,000 in Penalties and Projects and ordered to institute spill control measures.
 
Millstone's Fish-Killing Cooling System
CFE intervened in DEP permit proceedings to prevent the DEP from issuing a permit allowing Millstone Nuclear Power plant to withdraw over 2 billion gallons of water a day from Long Island Sound for cooling its towers. The cooling system kills billions of marine organisms each day, and played a large part in the collapse of the indigenous Niantic winter flounder stocks in the Sound by sucking in and destroying migrating larvae. A modern "closed" cooling system would recycle the water by using it multiple times and would reduce the destruction of fish and marine life by 92 percent. CFE Comments on Millstone Millstone Press Release. Millstone Notice of Intervention.

Cleaning up the Naugatuck River
Connecticut Fund for the Environment has intervened in the permit proceedings of three industrial dischargers (Whyco Finishing, Summit Corporation and Quality Rolling and Deburring (QRD)) who are continuing to discharge highly toxic effluent into the upper Naugatuck River. Due largely to industrial discharges, this stretch of river is one of the most degraded in the state and has received national attention. The DEP permits would allow the companies to continue discharging wastewater with unduly high levels of toxicity for five more years. CFE believes that the companies can reduce the toxicity in their discharge before the five year period and is asking that protective limits be put in place as soon as feasible.

Two of the three companies (Whyco and Summit) have agreed with CFE to accelerate their time frame for meeting tough discharge limits that will protect the river. A third, QRD, has not only refused to accelerate their schedule, but is claiming that it cannot meet the permit limits even in the five year term. A hearing is scheduled in the QRD matter on January 17, 2008.

The Hartford Courant published a story on Nov. 22, 2007. It began: "Two of the three metal-plating companies along a polluted stretch of the Naugatuck River have tentatively agreed to abide by new state permit limits that would reduce the amount of toxins they discharge into the water."

Stopping Dirty Diesel Pollution
Connecticut Fund for the Environment intervened in DEP proceedings to oppose a proposed General Permit that would expand the use of dirty diesel emergency generators. The legislature's 2007 energy bill included a program encouraging the use of dirty diesel emergency generators to meet electricity demand on peak days.

Energy demand spikes on the hottest summer days when air quality is unhealthy due to ozone. The emergency diesel generators would create more pollution for unit of energy produced than one of the "sooty six" power plants. Worse, they will be located in densely populated, urban, low income neighborhoods already suffering high rates of disease related to air pollution. A story appeared in The Connecticut Post on Oct. 11, 2007.

Public Health Toxicologist David Brown will establish that the issuance of the permit in its current form will lead to measurably increased instances of asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature deaths, particularly among sensitive populations.

Controls exist and are available that will reduce emissions from the generators by more than 85% and will mitigate the health impacts described above. Connecticut Fund for the Environment is asking that the DEP require installation of these pollution controls for all sources to protect air quality and public health.

DEP has agreed to amend the General Permit to require installation of state of the art pollution control equipment on ALL generators registered under the permit. This will eliminate adverse health impacts to sensitive, lower income and minority populations and is a huge win for air quality and environmental justice in Connecticut.
 
Opposing Broadwater's Industrialization of Long Island Sound
CFE/Save the Sound has brought actions before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and multiple New York agencies to stop the floating industrial liquid natural gas complex from being placed in the middle of Long Island Sound. The oversized structure would be 10 stories high, four football fields long and its no-go security zones would close off substantial portions to the public. CFE/Save the Sound is arguing that there are energy alternatives (such as conservation and existing natural gas supplies) and siting alternatives outside of the Sound that are less destructive to the Sound. Much more about Broadwater.
 
Preserving the 1,000-Acre Forest
CFE's legal team scored a major victory when they convinced the Old Saybrook Inland Wetlands Commission to reverse its earlier position and to reject a plan to carve a pristine 1,000 acre coastal forest known as the Preserve (one of the largest unprotected forests of its kind between NY and Boston) by building a golf course and a luxury housing development. The Wetlands Commission relied upon expert testimony presented by CFE and found that the development was environmentally unsound and would have an adverse impact on wetlands and watercourses. CFE is defending the appeal in Connecticut Superior Court.

"We acknowledge this has been a very long process but we are pleased that the Old Saybrook Inland Wetlands Commission took the time to evaluate the very real adverse environmental impacts this project would have," said Charles Rothenberger, staff attorney with Connecticut Fund for the Environment, which has intervened in the proceedings. "This property simply does not lend itself to a development this intense considering the rich array of vernal pools, wetlands, steep slopes and the highly erodable soils on the site. I feel this decision is a turning point toward the permanent protection of this site."

Jim Keaney, with the Alliance for Sound area Planning, said: "What a great victory for the towns of Old Saybrook, Essex and Westbrook to be able to preserve this property for future generations." ASaP is a broad-based, grassroots coalition created by concerned citizens from the towns of Old Saybrook, Westbrook and Essex in order to provide residents and land use decision makers with educational and informational resources and promote fiscally, socially and environmentally sound land use decisions on the proposed development called "The Preserve."
 
Killingly Sewage Plant Contributing to Algae Blooms in Quinnebaug-Shetucket River
CFE requested a hearing to challenge a draft permit DEP had issued for the Killingly sewage treatment plants in northeast Connecticut. Despite the fact that the plant discharges into the Quinnebaug, which has officially been declared an impaired water body due to excessive algae blooms, there were no controls for phosphorous, the primary cause of algae blooms. Not only is Algae unpleasant, but it sucks up oxygen from a river, reducing its ability to support fish and other marine life. DEP has since withdrawn the draft permit and is working to address the problem. CFE is working to make sure that prompt action is taken to clean up the sewage discharges sooner rather than later.
 
Hospital and Power Plant Reduce Use of Dirty Diesel Fuel
As a result of a settlement with CFE, the Hospital of Saint Raphael will be required to burn natural gas instead of dirty fuel oil from at least April through August each year, which will reduce emissions of diesel soot and other pollutants by more than 15 tons a year. Vulnerable populations living around the low smoke stack will benefit most from reductions on summer days when air is stagnant, ozone levels are high and people are outside or have their windows open. St. Raphael Press Release. St. Raphael Notice of Intervention.

Also, another power plant in Wallingford agreed with CFE to modify their permit so they will be required to burn cleaner natural gas and can only the dirtier fuel oil if there is an emergency, such as the unavailability of natural gas.
 
Low-Flow Streams to be Restored
CFE intervened in a case to restore low-flow streams in the Torrington Water Company water basin. CFE argued that the company should not be allowed to increase its out of basin water sales until it addressed the problem of low flow streams within the basin. CFE eventually reached an agreement with the Water Company and DEP in which the water company (1) will not increase the amount of water it was diverting and selling outside of the water basin and (2) will monitor stream flow and fund a study to determine how to restore the impaired streams within the water basin to a healthy flow. Torrington Press Release. Torrington Notice of Intervention. In another stream flow case, CFE challenged a General Permit "streamlining" measure by DEP that would have allowed certain water diversions to take place without any required review or oversight by DEP. CFE claimed that such unreviewed water diversions could have serious cumulative and individual impacts on stream flow, especially for streams that were already at low-flow levels. DEP ultimately agreed to restore the requirements that DEP review and approve applications before withdrawals can take place. General Permit Press Release. General Permit Notice of Intervention.