A group of 13 citizens which includes the principals in the Herring Creek Farm Trust and several of their relatives filed a lawsuit against the town of Edgartown this week, charging that the town is endangering the entire population of Martha's Vineyard by polluting the aquifer with its sewage treatment plant and also that town officials have worked actively for years to cover up the problem.
"This is a very serious problem which appears to have been covered up for years," said Jeffrey S. Robbins, an attorney with Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo who represents the citizens group and also is the lead attorney for the trust. Mr. Robbins' remarks appeared prominently in a press release which was circulated about the lawsuit just hours after it was filed in Dukes County Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon. Issued by the public relations firm which represents the Herring Creek Farm Trust, the press release was widely distributed to the regional media, including the Cape Cod Times, the Boston Herald and a Boston television station.
"The town's wastewater treatment plant has been poisoning the Island's water supply for nearly 15 years and town officials have apparently been working feverishly to conceal that fact from Edgartown's citizens, including spending tens of thousands of taxpayers' dollars trying to keep critical public documents hidden," declared Mr. Robins in the press statement.
The 30-page court complaint takes aim at the town's 20-year old treatment plant which it says has violated drinking water standards by routinely discharging dangerous nitrates into the Vineyard's sole-source aquifer. Among other things the complaint asks the court to:
- Force the town to halt all operations at the plant which are in violation of state rules;
- Enjoin the town from allowing any more sewer connections;
- Enjoin the town from allowing any sewer extensions;
- Limit deliveries of septage to the plant for treatment;
- Halt construction currently under way on the upgrade of the plant;
- Require the town to pump out all the water downgradient from the plant and remove the nitrogen;
- Award attorney's fees and costs.
Plaintiffs are Monte Wallace, Anne Wallace, Neil Wallace, Elise Wallace, Robert Farrington, Robert Karp, W. Gardner Wallace, Elizabeth Wallace, Phillip Katz, Sean Cummings, Stanley Wyrwicz, Jonathan Wallace and Julia Wallace Bennett. Five of the plaintiffs are not residents of the Vineyard.
In the press release circulated this week Mr. Robbins issued a harsh indictment of Edgartown officials. "This is an extraordinary example of the disgraceful double standard practiced by certain town officials," he said, adding: "A small group of town officials has abandoned its proper role and lost any credibility as stewards of the Island environment."
The lawsuit marks the fourth court complaint against the town and the fifth against parties on the Vineyard by the Wallaces, who are the principals in the Herring Creek Farm Trust. Reached at his office in Boston yesterday Mr. Robbins said the timing of the lawsuit has only to do with the town, which he said has spent months trying to keep the sewage treatment plant documents out of public view.
"For the town to say that this litigation has been delayed would be about the most disingenuous thing I could imagine them saying. For the last year the town of Edgartown has stonewalled and stonewalled and stonewalled," said Mr. Robbins.
He said the lawsuit has no connection to the other lawsuits the trust has filed.
Town attorneys had another view.
"This is obviously the action of people who are panicked and if their three-acre zoning lawsuit had any merit at all then they would be content to carry that through to its conclusion," said Richard W. Renehan, special counsel to the town on the zoning case which was in trial this week. He added: "This is just one more attempt by the Wallaces to put pressure on the town and it will have no more effect than any of their other lawsuits."
Edgartown town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport echoed his remarks.
"We view this as part of a pattern and an attempt to intimidate the town…. This goes along with the three-acre zoning suit, the suit against the MVC and the members in their individual capacities, the suit against Michael Wild over a Form A subdivision and their bill in the Massachusetts legislature," he said, adding:
"Once again I will say the timing is no coincidence Ñ we have just finished day 18 of the trial in the land court. Ironically it comes one month after the groundbreaking for the new upgraded treatment plant which the town has been working on for the last 13 years and has worked hand in hand with the state to bring it to this point."