Posted on 02.13.15
City: Superfund lawsuit will go to trial
Source: http://www.ashlandwi.com, February 12, 2015
By: Rick Olivo
The City of Ashland and Xcel Energy/Northern States Power-Wisconsin (NSP) will face each other in Federal Court in March after efforts to mediate a lawsuit to determine who should bear financial responsibility for the Lakefront Superfund site proved fruitless.
According to a news release issued by Ashland Mayor Debra Lewis at Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting, those negotiations have reached an impasse.
“Our lawyers and out insurers participated in mediation with NSP on Feb. 4, 2015, in an attempt to resolve the Superfund case,” Lewis said. “Unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreement. No further mediation is scheduled.”
Lewis said accordingly, the city is preparing for trial, which is set to take place in Federal District Court in court in Madison on April 27. That case will be presided over by Judge Barbara Crabb.
Lewis continued to maintain that the City of Ashland does not bear liability for the cleanup.
“In its case, NSP attempts to shunt responsibility for the pollution from its former manufactured gas plant onto the City and County of Ashland,” Lewis said. “No one, other than the experts paid by NSP, has testified that there is any source of contamination other than NSP’s former manufactured gas plant.”
Lewis asserted that a majority — 86 percent — of NSP’s cleanup costs is already being passed on to its ratepayers, including those who reside in the city of Ashland. She also asserted that NSP has already collected $28 million from its own insurers.
“In addition, if NSP has its way, Ashland city residents will pay three times for the cleanup: through our gas bills as taxpayers in the City of Ashland and as taxpayers of Ashland County,” she said. “We think that paying once, for a problem not caused by the city is more than enough. We will do our best to encourage Judge Crabb in Madison that the facts support that position.”
Ashland County Board Chairman Pete Russo said he too did not believe Ashland County Taxpayers should be found liable for the Superfund cleanup.
“I am sure if Ashland County was responsible for any of this, the Environmental Protection Agency would have named us on the list of responsible parties,” he said. “If EPA hasn’t named us, they haven’t got much of a case, but they went ahead and sued us on their own.”
Russo said he was worried about what a large judgment against Ashland County would do to taxpayers.
“I have people talking to me all the time about this, asking me what is going to happen,” he said. “I have to tell them ‘I don’t know, but I can tell you this; Xcel is not going to eat any of this if they don’t have to. They are going to pass all of it off.’”
Russo said Ashland County would be in court at the same time that the City of Ashland was, on April 27.
“We have an attorney who is representing us from the insurance company. He is hoping we can settle this out of court,” Russo said.
Russo said he didn’t believe there should have been a lawsuit in the first place.
“It’s a questionable way of doing business,” he said.
Meanwhile, Xcel Energy spokesman Brian Elwood said the company remains committed to the mediation process.
“We first received a copy of that letter (from Lewis) this afternoon, and we are continuing to work through the mediator process,” he said. “We will continue to do that with the other responsible parties that have been identified for cleanup at the site and we are going to continue to work through that mediator process moving forward.”
While Lewis indicated that there were no more mediation sessions scheduled, Elwood said Xcel would continue to work through the process.
Elwood said the company was prepared to go through with the court case if necessary.
“But we are continuing to be optimistic that we can work through that mediated process,” he said. “It continues to be our goal to work with the city to find ways to leverage the cleanup dollars towards helping the City achieve its economic waterfront redevelopment goals, to lower the overall costs of the project, and to amicably resolve our dispute with the City over its fair share of the cleanup costs.”
