NEW CASES LEGAL DOCKET (WINTER 2006)
NEW CASES
Moundville Lagoon (Hale County)
Black
Warrior Riverkeeper recently filed notice of intent to sue a wastewater
treatment plant in Moundville for 1,486 violations of
the federal Clean Water Act in the past five years.
These violations occurred at the Moundville Lagoon (AL0058122) located on
Lagoon and Lock Road 9, in
ONGOING CASES
Vulcan Materials Bessemer Quarry (Jefferson County)
The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), on January 31, issued a proposed order granting summary judgment in favor of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) and Vulcan Materials. This proposed order will go before the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) for approval. The ALJ recommended the grant of summary judgment based on two issues regarding standing of Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER to bring the request for hearing. The merits of our appeal were not discussed and have not been decided. If the EMC accepts the recommendation of the ALJ and grants the summary judgment then the merits of our appeal will not be heard by the ALJ, absent a successful appeal by us to the Circuit Court. The two issues which the ALJ decided against us were (1) that in order to pursue an administrative appeal of an administrative action by ADEM (the consent order in the Vulcan Materials case) one must have filed a timely written comment on the action and one must have suffered an injury to a legally recognized interest due to the administrative action, and (2) the injury to Riverkeeper's member for standing’s legally recognized interest is not redressable by correction of the errors in the consent order we allege in our appeal. This first issue has been the subject of several other cases the EMC heard this past year.
A plain reading of the statute
indicates that anyone who files a timely written comment on an order assessing
penalties is entitled to request and receive a hearing on the matter, regardless
of whether or not the requester is “injured” by the order. Riverkeeper filed
a timely written comment on the order and should have standing based on that.
The statutory law requires them to
consider the six penalty factors and to list findings of fact in the order which
support the imposition of penalties. ADEM ignores that law and sets penalty
amounts in secret without any explanation or rationale. Riverkeeper is
confident we will ultimately prevail; the statutory law is clear and we
will eventually get a ruling by a judge who understands the law.
RIVERKEEPER found 465
Clean Water Act violations
of the Clean Water Act
for total suspended solids at Vulcan
Material’s Bessemer Quarry and filed a notice of intent to sue. The
discharges from this limestone quarry muddies the creek for many miles
downstream, and is detrimental to
aquatic species including fish and other creatures that depend on clean water.
Donaldson Correctional Facility (Jefferson County)
Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER is working
with the Attorneys General’s office to
make pollution information about the Donaldson Correctional Facility more
available to the general public, possibly at a local library and other public
places. Riverkeeper’s actions have
already resulted in improvements to the
wastewater treatment plant — such as a new surge basin — which have, thus
far, stopped violations.
Following
Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s notice to file suit for 1,060 CWA violations, a new
100,000 gallon surge basin (foreground) was installed at Donaldson WWTP.
© Nelson Brooke (November 15, 2005)
Other Cases (Walker County)
Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER is also
addressing violations by the following:
Sloss Industries (over
500 violations), East
Walker County Wastewater Treatment Plant (4,473
violations), Cordova WWTP
(518
violations),
Moundville Lagoon (1,486
violations),
and Cleveland WWTP. Over the
past few years, RIVERKEEPER has
addressed over 8,500 Clean Water Act violations through six legal actions.
Please stay tuned to our newsletter
and website for more information regarding these cases.
