Burlington to Receive Funds from State Settlement with Wheelabrator

A recent court decision has named Burlington among the recipients of payments in a suit brought by the state against the waste disposal company Wheelabrator.

According to a May 19 press release from the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Town of Burlington will receive a payment of $47,890 as a result of a settlement resolving environmental violations allegedly committed by the operator of municipal waste incinerators.

According to the release, Wheelabrator Saugus and Wheelabrator North Andover allegedly committed multiple violations of the Hazardous Waste Management Act by failing to properly treat and dispose of ash, and the Clean Air Act by failing to contain fugitive ash.

As part of a $7.5 million settlement reached on May 2 with AG Coakley’s Office and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), $3.5 million from a “Municipal Relief Fund” is being distributed by the Attorney General's Office to towns that paid Wheelabrator for trash incineration services in 2009.  The Commonwealth alleged in the suit that the environmental violations gave rise to liability to the municipalities that contracted with Wheelabrator for trash disposal.  Burlington is receiving $47,890 based on the alleged violations committed by Wheelabrator, the release states. 

“These recoveries are rightfully owed to communities that contracted with Wheelabrator,” AG Coakley said. “Especially during these times when municipalities are dealing with difficult budget cuts, these refunds should help support essential services.”

“This very creative settlement allows the Commonwealth to provide monies from the Municipal Relief Fund to communities that trusted Wheelabrator to manage municipal trash properly in accordance with our environmental regulations,” said MassDEP Commissioner Kenneth L. Kimmell. “Wheelabrator must be held accountable to its contract communities and get its operations in Massachusetts back on track.  One hundred percent compliance with our environmental regulations is the only acceptable outcome for Wheelabrator.”   

Burlington Town Administrator Robert Mercier said Burlington had dealings with Wheelabrator when the town was part of the Northeast Solid Waste Committee (NSWC), a 23-member group made up of regional communities that joined to build a waste facility in North Andover. Mercier said when the agreement expired the towns in the group wanted out and negotiated an agreement with Wheelabrator to end the contract.  

However, during the time the waste-company was handling NSWC it apparently failed to dispose of ash waste properly. One of the violations, Mercier explained, was the company dumping ash in the Peabody Landfill.

Mercier said he doesn’t believe Burlington is carrying any liability from the environmental violation.

“I don’t think we have any liability,” he said. “When we went through this is 2004/05 we had more attorneys working on it than you can count.”

Still, Mercier applauded the decision and the work of the attorney general’s office and the investigators for pursuing the issue and holding Wheelabrator accountable.

“The Attorney General did some good work and in today’s environment any funds available will be welcome by communities,” he said. “We can certainly use them and will graciously accept any money from this arrangement. To their credit the Attorney General took a strong initiative and found a loophole and went after Wheelabrator.”

Mercier said he is waiting to hear the details from the attorney general’s office to find out if there are limitation on how the funds can be used. If not, he said, the money will most likely go into the town’s general fund.

According to the AG's office, under the terms of the comprehensive settlement announced on May 2, Wheelabrator agreed to pay a total of $7.5 million, directed as follows:

• $4.5 million to create a Municipal Relief Fund, $3.5 million of which the AG’s Office will distribute to municipalities, after paying a statutory  share to the whistleblowers who brought the matter to the government’s attention;
• Two payments totaling $2 million for civil penalties arising from multiple environmental violations;
• $500,000 donation to the Massachusetts Natural Resource Damages Trust;
• $500,000 for a supplemental environmental project or projects, to be approved by MassDEP and the AGO, designed to improve the environment in the vicinity of Wheelabrator facilities.

The Municipal Relief Fund arose out of the Attorney General’s contention that Wheelabrator’s environmental violations at the two facilities created liability to the municipalities who paid Wheelabrator for services.  The funds are not restricted - each municipality will determine how to use the money.  

In addition to the monetary component of the May 2 settlement, Wheelabrator must immediately hire an independent environmental auditor to monitor the company’s compliance with environmental regulations, the release states.  The company will be subject to unannounced inspections by the auditor for the next three years.

This case is the result of a comprehensive investigation that was conducted by the Massachusetts Environmental Strike Force in response to credible information provided to the Attorney General’s office by whistleblowers, Coakley's office states. 

The Massachusetts Environmental Strike Force is an inter-agency unit, which is overseen by AG Coakley, MassDEP Commissioner Kimmell and Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard Sullivan. The Strike Force is comprises prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office, Environmental Police and State Police Officers assigned to the Attorney General’s Office, and attorneys, investigators and engineers from the MassDEP.  The Strike Force investigates and prosecutes cases involving harm or risk to the state’s water, air or land, and that pose a significant threat to human health.

In the suit, the release states, the Commonwealth alleged that the environmental violations gave rise to liability to the municipalities that contracted with Wheelabrator for trash disposal.