Massachusetts Papers Over Failure to Enforce Environmental Laws

BOSTON, Massachusetts, January 20, 2005 (ENS) - Massachusetts state officials are sitting on a report that urges a major upgrade in Massachusetts Environmental Police staff and the funds to pay them, according to documents and emails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The report recommends reversing low staff levels, pay grades and morale through new police leadership and a refocused commitment to enforcing anti-pollution, wildlife protection and marine safety laws.

PEER, a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals, works nationwide with government scientists, land managers, environmental law enforcement agents, and field specialists committed to responsible management of America’s public resources.

The Massachusetts Environmental Police is the lead law enforcement unit responsible for everything from toxic dumping to search and rescue, from policing hunter, marine and all-terrain vehicle safety to wildlife, fishing, and coastal management protections.

Although the report by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies was completed in October 2004, Environmental Affairs Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder is keeping it under wraps.

Massachusetts Environmental Affairs Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder will make final policy determinations before the report by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies is released. (Photo courtesy Office of the Secretary)

According to Greco's email, Herzfelder will not release the report until she is ready "to review these final recommendations and determine what, if any," action to take.

Conducted by the Management Assistance Team of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the report entitled "Comprehensive Review of the Office of Law Enforcement of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts" makes 57 recommendations for reforming the Massachusetts Environmental Police MEP).

While its surveys and interviews indicate strong support for the MEP mission by hunters, fisherman and other stakeholders, the the organization is understaffed, the team found. Only 105 of its 130 full-time sworn police positions are filled. MEP has fewer officers than it had a decade ago.

The pay scale for the MEP Chief is less than half that of a State Police colonel. The low pay is making it difficult to recruit and retain good officers, the team reported. In addition, MEP does not have a permanent leader and state officials are vacillating about the role and priority accorded the agency, the review determined.

"The message of this report is simple. It is past time to start seriously enforcing the laws that protect our resources," said New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency biologist and attorney.

Massachusetts Environmental Police boat patrols the coastal waters. (Photo courtesy MEP)

In fact, Bennett warned Monday in a written comment filed with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), that environmental funding for the state has been cut to the point that Massachusetts can no longer meet basic federal anti-pollution requirements,

These cuts are detailed in a funding contract, known as the 2005-6 Performance Partnership Agreement, between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts DEP. The $14.5 million contract specifies how much monitoring of pollution, environmental enforcement, and permit oversight the federal agency expects Massachusetts DEP to perform during the next two years.

"The environmental safety net for Massachusetts is fraying," wrote Bennett in her comment to Elizabeth McCann in the DEP Commissioner's office, noting that DEP has 25 percent less staff than it did two years ago.

The Performance Partnership Agreement (PPA) states, "DEP continues to work with severely constrained resources and with significantly reduced staffing levels (25% over the past 2 years)."

Therefore, in the event that DEP must prioritize in meeting reporting requirements, the following high-priority reports are where resources will be dedicated under the 2005-2006 PPA."

The state agency says that due to these funding cuts, it must prioritize in meeting reporting requirements and will meet only "high-priority" requirements.

Traffic piles up in Boston, Massachusetts (Photo credit unknown)

Bennett points out in the formal PEER comments that the Massachusetts auto emissions testing program "routinely passes cars that should fail and fails cars that should pass," and the DEP "cannot predict when the problems will be fixed."

On air quality issues, the DEP says a high priority is to "submit an inventory of ozone and particulate matter precursors by June 1, 2004," although that deadline has already passed. Because the 2002 emission inventories will serve as the baselines for progress in attaining the new eight-hour ozone and fine particulate matter standards, "these inventories are particularly important," the state agency says.

The DEP says it will continue to submit ozone and fine particulate data to the federal agency, and also pledges to allocate nitrogen oxides (NOx) allowances among power plants for each summertime ozone season.

The state's auto emissions testing program is flawed and may not be fixed any time soon. (Photo courtesy Dan Furst)

"Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not an effective environmental program," Bennett objected, pointing to DEP’s prediction that it will have to ignore several federal requirements so it can fulfill those that it deems "high priority."

The DEP has had at least one recent air quality control success and points to it with pride.

Massachusetts claims to have the nation's toughest emissions standards for power plants, and just before Christmas, the state achieved an out of court settlement with the last of the state’s oldest and dirtiest power plants that specifies immediate compliance with state NOx standards.

The three party settlement between the Mirant Canal Power Plant in Sandwich, on Cape Cod, the DEP and the community group Cape Clean Air, avoids a long legal battle that would have threatened the plant’s environmental compliance.

"Our ultimate goal with these emission regulations has been to drastically reduce the amount of pollution emitted from the smokestacks of the oldest power plants, and this settlement brings us closer to realizing that goal," DEP Commissioner Robert W. Golledge Jr. said. "As a result of this agreement, air quality on Cape Cod will improve."

The settlement marks the end of litigation between DEP and Mirant Canal LLC over when the Sandwich plant would reduce NOx and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions to comply with regulations passed in 2001 requiring the cleanup of pollutants from the state’s oldest and dirtiest power generating facilities.

The company has agreed to control SO2 emissions by June 1.

"Today’s agreement with Mirant Canal produces immediate health and environmental benefits for the citizens of Cape Cod," said Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, who made a campaign pledge to clean up the state’s power plants. "Now each of the state’s dirtiest power plants is on target to meet our toughest-in-the-nation emission standards."

On the issue of water quality, the PPA shows that only nine percent of the state’s rivers and lakes meet federal water quality standards.

Swimming at Massasoit State Park in southeastern Massachusetts (Photo courtesy MDCR)

"Again, as in past years, the failure of DEP to even assess these waters is immensely troubling," Bennett wrote in her formal comments on the PPA.

The state acknowledges "extensive illegal alterations of wetlands … has occurred" but says that it will respond by cutting back on monitoring permits, even though the wetland losses associated with permitting are collectively much larger than those from illegal filling.

"Massachusetts DEP contends that it can be as effective with less resources by working smarter but they will have to import geniuses to overcome cuts of this magnitude," said Bennett of the 25 percent cuts. "The net results of diminished environmental investment are reflected in the state of Massachusetts’ air, lands and waters."

Read the "Comprehensive Review of the Office of Law Enforcement of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts" here.

See the emails justifying the decision to keep the report from the public.

Read PEER’s comments on the 2005-6 Performance Partnership Agreement between EPA and Massachusetts.

View the draft final 2005-06 Performance Partnership Agreement Program Plan here.