MASSACHUSETTS: Using the teeth of the law.

• Author: Pollack, Stephanie
• Position: Conservation Law Foundation cases - Brief Article

Over the past decade and more, CLF has expanded the array of tools it uses to protect the environment in Massachusetts and throughout New England. Although we are best known for litigation, CLF's lawyers and scientists actually spend far more time in agency proceedings, community meetings, and even research settings than in court.

But sometimes the most effective tool for getting the job done remains litigation. This spring, CLF staff based in the Massachusetts Advocacy Center launched two major lawsuits, reminding polluters and government regulators alike that they must comply with federal environmental laws and safeguard Massachusetts's natural resources.

The first lawsuit is against the PG&E Corporation, the villain of the movie Erin Brockovich and owner of the Salem Harbor electric power station in Salem and the Brayton Point station in Somerset. With a generating capacity of 2,300 megawatts--nearly two-thirds of it coal-fired--the eight fossil fuel units at Salem Harbor and Brayton Point are among the biggest polluters in the Northeast.

Led by staff attorneys Carol Lee Rawn and Richard Kennelly, as well as general counsel Stephen Burrington, CLF is suing to end toxic waste disposal practices by PG&E that may have placed the public and the environment--both in Massachusetts and across the border from Brayton Point in Rhode Island--at risk. In April, they served a 90-day notice letter on PG&E and several affiliated companies, the necessary first step in bringing a citizen lawsuit under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The goal of that RCRA lawsuit is to force the company to clean up its solid and liquid coal and oil waste sites at Salem Harbor and Brayton Point. The sites are leaching toxic metals and other chemicals into groundwater as a result of improper coal and oil waste disposal practices. Toxics identified so far include chromium, arsenic, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, vanadium, and manganese. As some of these contaminants have a tendency to build up in the environment, they may irreversibly harm surrounding ecosytems or may pose a risk to humans consuming contaminated fish. Unless PG&E addresses all of the problems cited in the notice letter by committing to cleaning up the contaminated sites and using safe waste disposal practices in the future, CLF's next step will be to file a federal court lawsuit after the 90-day notice period ends in July.

Amazingly, even though PG&E's existing waste disposal...