Selenium causes skeletal deformities in fish and can harm people and birds that consume affected fish. Iron, aluminum, and manganese block fish gills, smother fish eggs, and make aquatic life impossible at high enough concentrations. Boron prevents normal growth in waterfowl. For years, the massive coal-fired Conemaugh Generating Station — owned by a consortium of […]
Residents of Zilwaukee, MI, were alarmed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to dump dioxin-contaminated “dredge spoils” near peoples’ homes, especially once they learned the Corps did not conduct legally-required environmental and public health reviews. Dredge spoils are the soil and sediment removed from the bed or bottom of lakes, rivers, or […]
For years, Bradford Dyeing Association, Inc. (BDA), a textile mill and U.S. Department of Defense contractor, had befouled Westerly, RI, with a double whammy of Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act violations. Neighbors complained about foul chemical odors emitted by the facility, and kayakers observed a “dead zone” in the Pawcatuck River directly downstream […]
Following our success in prompting Maine’s largest blueberry grower, Cherryfield Foods, to eliminate aerial pesticide spraying, four environmental groups represented by NELC focused on Maine’s second-largest blueberry grower, Jasper Wyman & Son. In March of 2005, we served a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue that described how Wyman’s aerial pesticide spraying violated the Clean […]
For years, Maine’s largest blueberry grower, Cherryfield Foods, used airplanes to spray pesticides over its berry fields. Aerial spraying is inherently indiscriminate, as chemical spray drifts with the wind and contaminates nearby land and waterways. The harmful effects of these pesticides reach beyond crop-eating pests, to the birds, fish, and beneficial insects like bees that […]
At the turn of the 21st Century, Pacific Seafood’s conventional seafood processing plant in Warrenton, OR, routinely violated its wastewater discharge limits for biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and oil and grease, sometimes exceeding permitted limits by two to three orders of magnitude. And the company’s adjacent surimi plant, a high-tech processing facility that converted […]
Heavy-duty wood treatment chemicals are among the deadliest chemicals in wide use. Pentachlorophenol (penta) is one such chemical that, despite being banned in 26 countries as a probable carcinogen, U.S. company’s use to protect wood products from insects, microorganisms, and decay. In 2002, NELC filed suit against Bellingham, WA-based Oeser Company, a wood treater that […]
Ocean-based fish farms pose a unique threat to aquatic ecosystems because no more than a porous net separates genetically altered fish and thousands of tons of pollutants from nearby streams, coastal waters, and sensitive marine life. In 2000, NELC brought a first-of-its kind lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group against Heritage […]
In 2000, NELC filed suit under the Clean Air Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act against the U.S. Department of the Army to put an end to its practice of open burning and open detonation (OB/OD) disposal of unwanted munitions, rocket motors, and other explosives at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, CA. The […]
For years, Wolcottville Sand and Gravel Corporation discharged mine dewatering wastes filled with contaminants from its Milan, Michigan, quarry into the North Branch Palmer Drain, which empties into Stoney Creek. By the time NELC filed a lawsuit in 1998, the company had committed thousands of violations of its permitted limits for total suspended solids and flow. […]