Pollution UpDate 03.18.2002

Contacts: Maya K. van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper, 215-369-1188
Mark Hersh, Raymond Proffitt Foundation, 814-861-6901

Environmentalists File to Intervene in Government Action to Protect Wetlands

March 18, 2002, three environmental organizations filed in Federal District Court to intervene in a federal wetlands protection case. The organizations are seeking to enforce a 12-year old order to force Pozsgai Trucking of Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to restore and remediate approximately five and one-half acres of wetlands he filled in the late 1980s.

According to Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, “John Pozsgai knew what he was doing when he filled in these wetlands – he got a discount on the purchase price of the land, had reports from three experts and the Army Corps telling him not to fill them without a permit, and yet he still went ahead and did it. And even today he continues to ignore our laws and the damage he is doing to neighboring communities. It is high time that the government took concrete action to restore these damaged wetlands – and our intervention is a way to make sure the restoration happens.”

Joe Turner, with the Raymond Proffitt Foundation, has been documenting new fill activities by Pozsgai trucking company over the past year. Turner states, “we would not be involved in this matter if government had done it’s job, and enforced the courts order.”

Between 1988 and 1990 the Army Corps of Engineers documented that Mr. Pozsgai was illegally filling in his wetlands. As a result, they brought an enforcement action to prevent additional wetlands filling and to secure remediation of those wetlands which had already been filled by Mr. Pozsgai’s illegal activities. After a hearing in Federal Court in 1990, Mr. Pozsgai was ordered to cease and desist fill activities and to remove all fill within the jurisdictional wetlands lines. Two trucking companies were included in the 1990 Order and were instructed to remove the fill they placed at the Pozsgai site. The two trucking companies complied with the Court Ordered Restoration Plan and remediated portions of the site they were accountable for—approximately .86 acres. Mr. Pozsgai has ignored the 1990 Court Order and failed to remediate the five and one-half acres of wetlands he has filled in. And yet, until now, the Army Corps has failed to bring any action to enforce the 1990 Order.

On Friday, March 15, 2002 the US Attorneys office filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction and an Order to Show Cause Why Defendants Should not be held in Contempt with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. On Monday, March 18, 2002 the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the American Littoral Society and the Raymond Proffitt Foundation filed legal papers to intervene in the action. The three environmental organizations claim that the Corps has been unable or unwilling to represent the interests of the public or the environment by failing to enforce the Cease and Desist Order for over 12 years. As a result the environmental organizations seek to intervene to ensure the 1990 Order and Restoration Plan is implemented and completed swiftly and without any backsliding through amendments or renegotiations.