PIRGIM Public Interest Lobby et al. v. Wolcottville Sand & Gravel (d/b/a London Aggregates)

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. Within weeks, the U.S. EPA filed its own lawsuit, which was consolidated with the NELC suit, and the parties ultimately negotiated a comprehensive 2002 consent decree. This settlement required Wolcottville to stop discharging its mine dewatering water unless and until it obtained a revised permit authorizing such discharge, and to establish groundwater monitoring wells to collect data on quarry water quality. The settlement also required the company to pay a $595,000 penalty, which funded a variety of environmental projects, including Monroe County’s restoration of Stoney Creek and the Nature Conservancy’s restoration of the Lake Erie Marsh Preserve and acquisition of two plots of land for nature preservation.