A group of mainly UW-Madison law students notified Alliant Energy Thursday that they intend to sue the corporation for $37.5 million if it does not concede to minimize water pollution at its Columbia Generating Plant near Portage, Wis., according to Brent Denzin, executive board member for the Wisconsin Environmental Law Advocates.
Denzin said WELA has uncovered over 2,000 different water waste violations over the past five years. Some violations continued for multiple days, resulting in a total of over 3,800 violations. According to the release, the Portage plant's waste-water emissions exceed allowable levels of pH, copper, beryllium and other pollutants.
Additionally, Alliant Energy failed to report violations 1,188 times in the past five years, according to a press release.
\Every time that [companies] violate and they pollute over what they're allowed to by the state,"" Denzin said. ""They're supposed to let the state agency know and they really actually never did.""
Alliant Energy has received notification of the impending lawsuit and has 60 days to compromise with WELA.
However, Alliant Energy Spokesperson Chris Shoenherr did not admit to violations.
""We operate all of our plants, including the Columbia power station, in an environmentally responsible manner,"" he said. ""We stand by our record of progressive actions to minimize our environmental footprint.""
Denzin said the plant has continued to emit illegal pollutants without legal action taken against them because the Department of Justice, whose job it is to look into violations, never put together a list of Alliant Energy's many minor violations to comprehend the resulting large, negative effects.
""Its not the Department of Justice's fault. It's just that they don't have any resources or money to [enforce] this,"" Denzin said. ""They don't look further into [incidents] and realize ... these are actually extremely large cases.""
Each violation could cost Alliant Energy up to $27,500, the number WELA used to generate the $37.5 million for which they plan to sue.
However, Denzin said WELA is most concerned with affecting change.
""We're just trying to get them to stop ... as opposed to pushing them to pay $37.5 million,"" he said.
