FEBRUARY 11, 2015
The City of
Ashland and Xcel Energy/Northern States Power-Wisconsin (NSP) will face each
other in Federal Court in March after efforts to mediate a lawsuit to determine
who should bear financial responsibility for the Lakefront Superfund site
proved fruitless.
According
to a news release issued by Ashland Mayor Debra Lewis at Tuesday evening’s City
Council meeting, those negotiations have reached an impasse.
“Our
lawyers and out insurers participated in mediation with NSP on Feb. 4, 2015, in
an attempt to resolve the Superfund case,” Lewis said. “Unfortunately, we were
unable to reach an agreement. No further mediation is scheduled.”
Lewis said
accordingly, the city is preparing for trial, which is set to take place in
Federal District Court in court in Madison on April 27. That case will be
presided over by Judge Barbara Crabb.
Lewis continued
to maintain that the City of Ashland does not bear liability for the cleanup.
“In its
case, NSP attempts to shunt responsibility for the pollution from its former
manufactured gas plant onto the City and County of Ashland,” Lewis said. “No
one, other than the experts paid by NSP, has testified that there is any source
of contamination other than NSP’s former manufactured gas plant.”
Lewis
asserted that a majority — 86 percent — of NSP’s cleanup costs is already being
passed on to its ratepayers, including those who reside in the city of Ashland.
She also asserted that NSP has already collected $28 million from its own
insurers.
“In
addition, if NSP has its way, Ashland city residents will pay three times for
the cleanup: through our gas bills as taxpayers in the City of Ashland and as
taxpayers of Ashland County,” she said. “We think that paying once, for a
problem not caused by the city is more than enough. We will do our best to
encourage Judge Crabb in Madison that the facts support that position.”
Ashland
County Board Chairman Pete Russo said he too did not believe Ashland County
Taxpayers should be found liable for the Superfund cleanup.
“I am sure
if Ashland County was responsible for any of this, the Environmental Protection
Agency would have named us on the list of responsible parties,” he said. “If
EPA hasn’t named us, they haven’t got much of a case, but they went ahead and
sued us on their own.”
Russo said
he was worried about what a large judgment against Ashland County would do to
taxpayers.
“I have
people talking to me all the time about this, asking me what is going to
happen,” he said. “I have to tell them ‘I don’t know, but I can tell you this;
Xcel is not going to eat any of this if they don’t have to. They are going to
pass all of it off.’”
Russo said
Ashland County would be in court at the same time that the City of Ashland was,
on April 27.
“We have an
attorney who is representing us from the insurance company. He is hoping we can
settle this out of court,” Russo said.
Russo said
he didn’t believe there should have been a lawsuit in the first place.
“It’s a
questionable way of doing business,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Xcel Energy spokesman Brian Elwood said the company remains committed to the
mediation process.
“We first
received a copy of that letter (from Lewis) this afternoon, and we are
continuing to work through the mediator process,” he said. “We will continue to
do that with the other responsible parties that have been identified for
cleanup at the site and we are going to continue to work through that mediator
process moving forward.”
While Lewis
indicated that there were no more mediation sessions scheduled, Elwood said
Xcel would continue to work through the process.
Elwood said
the company was prepared to go through with the court case if necessary.
“But we are
continuing to be optimistic that we can work through that mediated process,” he
said. “It continues to be our goal to work with the city to find ways to
leverage the cleanup dollars towards helping the City achieve its economic
waterfront redevelopment goals, to lower the overall costs of the project, and
to amicably resolve our dispute with the City over its fair share of the
cleanup costs.”