EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA
New Hampshire
Firm sued over Beede waste site cleanup
Published: July 6, 2009
A Lawrence auto dealership is being taken to federal court by a group of businesses and towns paying for the cleanup of the Beede Oil Superfund site.
H.J. Nassar Motor Co. is one of 52 defendants who agreed with federal prosecutors in July 2008 to contribute toward the cost of cleaning up the Superfund site in Plaistow.
The group is paying approximately $7.9 million, according to court records. In all, about 1,000 parties are paying approximately $48 million for the cleanup of the former waste oil site.
The group, known as the Beede Site Group, is now asking a federal judge to make sure Nassar comes up with the $256,139 it agreed to pay, according to court documents.
"Nassar has not made the required payments despite repeated demands from the Beede Site Group and notice from the EPA. It has therefore breached its covenants under the Consent Decree," lawyer Curtis Connors wrote.
A lawyer for the auto business asked a federal judge to hold off on forcing the company to go to court, saying the firm was negotiating with the Environmental Protection Agency and Beede Site Group about making payments.
But Judge Lincoln D. Almond denied the request and set an August hearing date in U.S. District Court.
The Beede Site Group is also suing the owners of the former waste oil site, Leo LaRochelle of Newton and Robert J. LaRochelle of Plaistow, to get them to pay for cleaning up the site. That case was just transferred to a federal judge in Rhode Island because all the New Hampshire federal judges claimed to have conflicts.
Judge Joseph LaPlante wrote that he had a conflict because he was a district attorney when the initial consent decree was struck with the Beede Group and the government.
Judge Steven McAuliffe opted out of the case as well, saying he had a financial interest in one of the companies. The two remaining federal judges, Paul Barbadoro and Joseph DeClerico, did not explain why they are stepping aside.
