"The Attorney General and DEEP chose to ignore (the new) proposal and instead file a surprise lawsuit," the utility's statement said.
United Illuminating Wednesday pushed back against claims made by state and local officials about the status of a long-polluted and defunct power plant that sits in the middle of a river.
The utility, a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc. reacted to Connecticut Attorney General Tong’s announcement of legal action against English Station by saying, in a statement, “In direct contradiction of claims by Connecticut’s policymakers during the Attorney General’s press conference earlier this week, UI has gone above and beyond its obligations for the cleanup of English Station under the Partial Consent Order (PCO) with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The Attorney General is now trying to change the agreement made with the State in 2016.”
Tong held a press conference Monday in New Haven to announce a lawsuit accusing UI of failing to live up to its agreements to clean up the site. United Illuminating later said there were “multiple inaccuracies” shared at the press briefing but did not at the time say what they were.
UI and its then owner had agreed in 2015 to spend $30 million to clean up the polluted power plant, which they said then would take three years. Tong on Monday said UI, now owned by Avangrid, has failed to honor any of its agreements and has only removed one building on Ball Island.
UI, however, said: “In 2016, the Connecticut Attorney General and the Commissioner of DEEP negotiated and reached an agreement with UI that the company would spend $30 million to remediate English Station and was not required to demolish the site.
“They now want to change the deal. Records of the negotiation and the final agreement make this crystal clear,” the utility’s statement said. “UI has previously reminded the Attorney General of the negotiations and the final agreement and now looks forward to proving this in court with the Attorney General’s own emails and records.”
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction requiring United Illuminating to take “whatever action is necessary” to clean up English Station. The company has been under a partial consent order since 2016. The complaint also seeks a $25,000-per-day penalty for each of six violations of the consent order.
“It’s been 30 years since English Station closed,” Tong said Monday. “And we’ve been waiting 30 years for United Illuminating, but for the owners and providers of English Station to remediate this site. The site is full of contamination, PCBs that have been outlawed.”
Tong said the buildings themselves are dangerous, have been vandalized and unauthorized people have been seen on the property. The plant operated as a coal- and oil-fired power station from 1929 until 1992.
But UI also said it had, less than “two weeks ago” proposed a “compromise and a path forward.”
“The Attorney General and DEEP chose to ignore this proposal and instead file a surprise lawsuit,” the utility’s statement said.
“UI was willing to go above the $30 million it committed in the PCO and discuss with the State other forms of funding, as agreed in 2016, to implement a different remediation plan than the PCO required in order to find a solution. Unfortunately, the Attorney General and DEEP decided instead to present a one-sided version of events that is not accurate.”
Elizabeth Benton, a spokesman for Tong, said Wednesday, “The Attorney General does not bring lawsuits he expects to lose. The company’s talking points are not backed by facts and evidence.
“If United Illuminating is confident in these claims, let’s accelerate the court’s adjudication and get this resolved ASAP. United Illuminating is obligated to remediate English Station, regardless of cost, and they were obligated to complete that work years ago,” Benton said. “We have attempted over many, many years to work with United Illuminating to get this job done. Litigation was a last resort, but we are confident in our case and will address these inaccuracies and UI’s many failures in court on behalf of our state and the people of New Haven who deserve better.”
Benton added, “Avangrid consistently mistakes the terms of the Partial Consent Order, which clearly states that United Illuminating has the obligation to remediate the site regardless of cost. See page 17, paragraph 24 of the PCO where it states ‘”[UI] shall comply with this Consent Order even if the costs of such compliance exceed $30 million…'”
The utility said in its statement:
“While the company continues to work in compliance with the PCO, Connecticut policymakers appear to be moving the goalposts, seeking remediation to a residential standard or even complete demolition, when demolition was removed from the PCO drafts in early-stage negotiations,” the statement says. “UI sold the English Station site over 20 years ago, so discussion of the site beyond the ‘heavy industrial’ standard is not UI’s responsibility under the PCO; the State agreed to this in 2016 and should not be allowed to renege.”
