Lynn gets $350G in RESCO settlement

LYNN – The city will pick up $347,538 as its portion of a settlement resolution regarding environmental violations allegedly committed by Wheelabrator Saugus, the neighboring trash-to-energy plant.Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy called the settlement welcome news and the timing perfect. Kennedy said the city is getting hit with some unanticipated bills as a result of a particularly harsh winter and the settlement would be used to offset those costs.”It will be put to good use,” she said.Kennedy said winter storms caused damage to portable classrooms at Sisson Elementary School and brought down several light poles at Breed Middle School and Frey Park.”So many teams take advantage of those ball fields in the summer we can’t not fix them,” she said.The poles aren’t cheap, however. Kennedy said they cost about $125,000 each, which is why the settlement is timely.”We owe $115,000 for repairs to the portable classrooms at Sission and the rest will help cover payroll for the fifty-third week we have in FY11 that no one was prepared for,” Kennedy said. “No one realized we had a fifty-third week this year and most departments only budgeted for 52. That will pretty much do it.”The settlement is part of a larger $7.5 million settlement reached on May 2 with Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office and the Department of Environmental Protection with Wheelabrator Saugus and Wheelabrator North Andover, which allegedly committed multiple violations of the Hazardous Waste Management Act by failing to properly treat and dispose of ash, and the Clean Air Act by failing to contain fugitive ash.Coakley announced in a prepared statement that $3.5 million of the $7.5 million had been set aside in a “Municipal Relief Fund,” which is being distributed by her office to communities that paid Wheelabrator for trash incineration services in 2009.”These recoveries are rightfully owed to communities that contracted with Wheelabrator,” Coakley said in the statement. “Especially during these times when municipalities are dealing with difficult budget cuts, these refunds should help support essential services.”