BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced a $125,000 agreement on Monday with two recycling companies that allegedly filled and excavated protected wetlands.
Allied Recycling Center Inc. and Recycling Walpole LLC also allegedly engaged in the improper storage of solid and hazardous waste materials at a scrapyard in Walpole. Coakley alleged the companies began illegally filling and altering wetland areas at and around their 17-acre property since as early as 1988.
Coakley also alleged the defendants failed to report releases of oil to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and failed to properly dispose of asbestos-containing materials.
"Wetlands serve important environmental functions and those who damage or destroy these valuable resources will be held accountable," Coakley said. "We are pleased that this settlement will ensure wetlands restoration and the cleanup of hazardous waste materials dumped on the property."
Under the terms of a consent judgment, Allied Recycling Center and Recycling Walpole must pay a $125,000 civil penalty and restore approximately an acre-and-a-half of bordering vegetated wetlands and 176 linear feet of a stream. The companies must also assess the historic and recent solid waste at the site, design and implement a closure plan, assess the site for asbestos-containing waste and correct any handling, reporting or storage violations of oil or hazardous waste materials at the site.
Recycling companies settle environmental violation allegations in Massachusetts
