CAPE COD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A New England environmental rights organization has filed a lawsuit against the town of Barnstable for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act.
The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) filed the suit against the town over its sewage treatment plant, which the CLF said is polluting coastal waters with Nitrogen. According to VP of Strategic Litigation Christopher Kilian, the pollution creates further problems by causing algae outbreaks.
“We're just putting too much nitrogen pollution into these bays, and it’s causing a lot of vegetative and algal growth," Kilian said. "And that is suffocating the bays, causing fowl conditions, algae and rotting vegetation.”
Kilian said that the Hyannis wastewater treatment facility has a large plume of Nitrogen that gets expelled, and ends up in Hyannis Harbor and Lewis Bay.
He added that the issue is the reason why visitors and residents may see ponds and beaches close regularly on the Cape -- because of the algae blooms.
The CLF will be asking a federal court judge to impose an order on Barnstable town officials that requires them to install "appropriate modern treatment technologies" to remove the Nitrogen from the water source.
WBZ NewsRadio has a call out to the Barnstable Town Manager, awaiting a response.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports.
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Written by Rachel Armany
(Photo: Getty Images)