Toxics Action Center, Conservation Law Foundation v. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. and North Country Environmental Services

Residents of Bethlehem, NH, voted against the expansion of a Casella Waste Systems-operated landfill two years in a row. Then they learned that the landfill had been leaking. On behalf of Toxics Action Center and Conservation Law Foundation, NELC filed a lawsuit in 2018 against Casella and its local subsidiary, alleging that the New England waste management company was violating the Clean Water Act by collecting landfill leachate and groundwater contaminated by iron, manganese, and 1,4-dioxane and discharging the contaminants directly into the Ammonoosuc River via a short overland channel. After several years of litigation, a 2022 settlement required Casella to safely remove a decade’s worth of contaminated sediments from the drainage channel, and pay $50,000 to fund ecological restoration and conservation projects in the Ammonoosuc River watershed.