Communities in Vermont still reeling from the toxic waste left behind in their drinking water from long-closed industrial plants understand the importance of corporate responsibility when it comes to environmental issues. Common sense protections keep polluters on the hook and money in the bank for clean-up efforts.
The Conservation Law Foundation is also threatening a lawsuit if the Chiofaro tower, and a 305-foot tower on the Hook Lobster site, get a final OK.
But despite the changes, there’s still no requirement for developers to follow through, complained Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group.
“It’s a largely procedural requirement,” he said.
Nearly 20 years ago, DDR Gateway LLC (DDR) promised to provide greater public access to Everett’s waterfront in exchange for a State license to build its Gateway Center shopping complex. But two decades on, the waterfront park the developer promised hasn’t fully materialized. Now CLF is asking the State to hold DDR accountable for its failures.
The “private benefits your decision confers on a few private developers dwarf any public benefits being provided,” wrote Heather Miller and Peter Shelley, attorneys for the group. “Critically and fatally to your decision, nowhere do you even articulate exactly how this project primarily serves a public purpose.”
A wave of luxury development threatens to wall off the experience of Boston Harbor from the people who paid to clean it up, just as the waterfront was once literally walled off behind the city’s Central Artery expressway. CLF Senior Counsel Peter Shelley remembers the original campaign to clean up the Boston Harbor, and continues to work on current issues of equity and fairness.
“It’s essentially an admission on Shell’s part that the risks we’ve identified in our case are real and imminent,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the CLF, which filed the lawsuit against the oil giant last August.
“Casella must finally be held responsible for its illegal discharges of pollutants into the Ammonoosuc River,” said Tom Irwin, Director of Conservation Law Foundation New Hampshire. “Unfortunately, this pollution is another sign that landfills are dangerous and not a sustainable solution to our waste problems. It’s time to stop expanding toxic landfills and start protecting communities by reducing waste at its source through recycling and other efforts.”
Harvey. Irma. Maria. Nate. Last year, during a 45-day period, eight consecutive named storms strengthened into hurricanes. All told, the 2017 hurricane season was the most expensive in history, causing more than $200 billion in damage nationwide. Meanwhile, so-called 100-year floods are becoming so common the metric is losing its meaning and utility. For instance,… Continue reading Climate Change Preparedness on Trial
“The Wheelabrator landfill is the most dangerous in Massachusetts, and it is putting the health of nearby residents at risk,” said Kirstie Pecci of the Conservation Law Foundation in a written statement announcing the appeal.
