CLF and Boston Harbor.

• Position: Past, Present & Future - Calendar

June 7, 1983

The Conservation Law Foundation (ELF), represented by attorney Peter Shelley and Goodwin Procter LLP, sues the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and the US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for chronic, unauthorized, and massive discharges of partially treated, often raw sewage into Boston Harbor over more than a decade, violating the federal Clean Water Act.

December 1984

Under judicial threat of a Boston-wide development moratorium, the Massachusetts Legislature creates the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) to Lake over the MDC's water supply and sewage functions--a reform CLF has requested for some time. CLF's suit is transferred to the MWRA. Finally, the new MWRA will have independent finance authority to issue the bonds necessary to pay for a Harbor cleanup.

January-April 1985

EPA responds by becoming a plaintiff, filing its own suit against the MWRA, and denying another Clean Water Act waiver request, thus ending EPA's acquiescence to the dumping of partially treated sewage in the shallow waters of Massachusetts Bay.

September 5, 1985

U.S. District Court Judge A. David Mazzone finds the MWRA liable for persistent and severe violations...