Citizens group can’t appeal OMYA water permit

Citizens group can’t appeal OMYA water permit

April 2, 2002
The Associated Press

MONTPELIER — A Danby citizens group has lost its effort to overturn a water discharge permit issued to OMYA Inc., the calcium carbonate producer.

In a decision issued Tuesday, Acting Water Resources Board Chairman Lawrence Bruce Jr. wrote that Vermonters for a Clean Environment failed to meet the threshold necessary under state law to appeal the permit.

Following a preliminary ruling issued in February, the citizens group asked for a full board review. On March 12, the board heard oral arguments from the group and from OMYA.

“Based on its own evaluation of the evidence, the board has found certain facts not contained in the acting chair’s preliminary ruling,” Bruce wrote.

“But it nonetheless reaches the same conclusion: that VCE, both as a corporate entity and in its representational capacity, lacks the requisite standing to bring and sustain this appeal.”

Vermonters for a Clean Environment last year appealed OMYA’s water discharge permit, citing the omission of a key condition that would have required the company to notify the state prior to using new chemicals in the treatment of its calcium carbonate product.

OMYA sought to have the group’s appeal dismissed on the grounds that the Danby-based environmental group failed to show that the group, or its members, have an interest in the discharge from the Florence plant into Otter Creek and Smith Pond.

Annette Smith of Danby, head of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, has said that the group is not a membership organization, but rather a group comprised of supporters.

Bruce wrote in his decision that the group is effective in enabling citizens to take political and legal action to protect their rights.

“However, the board is unable to conclude that VCE has articulated a legally cognizable interest ... that is any different that that suffered by the general public even if, as VCE has asserted, the waters of Smith Pond and Otter Creek will be degraded under the permit,” Bruce wrote in the 18-page decision.