Massachusetts announces $120,000 settlement with facility over Clean Water Act violations
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO) announced on August 8, 2024, a settlement with Atlantic Oliver II Francis Avenue, LLC. over allegations that the company violated the Clean Water Act.
The violations include illegally discharging industrial stormwater into the Canoe River in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
The company will make payments totaling $120,000 under the settlement, most of which will fund projects to improve local water quality in the Taunton River watershed.
The settlement has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on August 7, 2024, and is pending court approval.
If approved, it would resolve allegations that Oliver violated the Clean Water Act by allowing industrial stormwater to discharge into the Canoe River Wetlands without obtaining or complying with the necessary federal permit.
According to the AGO’s complaint, for at least five years, stormwater from the facility has flowed over the ground surface, motor vehicles, and other industrial equipment, picking up pollutants and carrying them into an exposed water channel that flows to wetlands adjacent to the Canoe River, which is in the Taunton River watershed.
Part of this area is within the Hardy Conservation area, which is an important resource for local communities and plays a critical part in the Canoe River Greenbelt that runs through the towns of Sharon, Foxborough, Mansfield, Easton on Norton.
The settlement, if approved by the court, requires Oliver to take action to mitigate stormwater discharge from its facility and pay $45,000 to the Natural Resources Trust of Mansfield, $45,000 to the Taunton River Watershed Alliance for projects to benefit water quality in the Taunton River watershed, and $30,000 to the AGO for the reimbursement of attorney’s fees.
