A judge has thrown out a lawsuit that claimed International Paper of Jay violated the federal Clean Water Act by operating without a valid pollution permit on the Androscoggin River.
U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock Jr. based his decision partly on a technicality, that the Natural Resources Council of Maine did not provide proper notice when it filed the suit.
Woodcock wrote that the Environmental Protection Agency issued a one-year permit in 1985 that was to expire in 1986. IP waited years for the government to act on a new permit, all the while polluting according to the limits of the 1985 permit, the judge wrote.
But because a new permit was issued in 2005, the case was moot, Woodcock said in the ruling. He wrote also that EPA’s 1985 permit remained effective until Maine issued a new permit in 2005.
“We’re really disappointed that the court dismissed this case,” said Brownie Carson, executive director of the Natural Resources Council.
The central issue that IP operated for years with a 1985 license written for one year still needs to be addressed, Carson said.
The Natural Resources Council will consider appealing, Carson said. At a minimum, the group will stay involved in monitoring the state’s review of IP’s pollution license, which was finally granted last year.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing pollution data with the concern that the new license doesn’t do enough to protect the river, Commissioner David Littell said Wednesday.
Last year, there were a significant number of days, more than 30, when the river did not achieve its water-quality standards, Littell said. While the river is far cleaner than it used to be, the Androscoggin is Maine’s dirtiest river.
IP spokesman Bill Cohen said he was still wading through the court’s decision Wednesday afternoon. His first reaction, he said, was that it’s time to move on.
“My take is the judge is saying we’ve had valid, legal permits all along,” Cohen said. “It doesn’t matter why he dismissed it. The fact is he dismissed it. We have a valid, operating license.”
It’s easy to go after big business, he said. “We wear a big target.”
The Natural Resources Council filed the lawsuit last year, complaining that the Jay mill pours about 40 million gallons a day of wastewater into the Androscoggin.
In his 37-page decision dated March 28, Justice Woodcock wrote that in view of the alleged history of the permitting process, “NRCM was justified in filling a citizen suit … on the ground that the federal and state agencies had failed and would continue to fail to exercise their enforcement responsibilities.'”
The judge also wrote that while DEP reconsiders IP’s new permit, a stay of last year’s permit is not warranted.
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