You asked how an individual can prevent a public entity, such as a town garage, from polluting underground water. The Office of Legislative Research is not authorized to issue legal opinions, and this should not be construed as one.

SUMMARY

Public entities are subject to the same environmental laws as private industry. An individual therefore has the same right to stop a town from polluting as he has to prevent a private individual or company from polluting. The remedies available to him include notifying the town of the problem; informing the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) if the town fails to address the problem; and suing the town.

REMEDIES

A person who knows or suspects a public building is causing pollution should first notify the town and ask it to fix the problem. If the town does not correct it, the individual should notify DEP. According to legislative liaison Tom Tyler, DEP will dispatch an emergency response team if the threat of environmental harm is immediate, such as in the case of an oil or chemical spill. If the threat of harm is not urgent, DEP will send out the appropriate personnel, depending on the nature of the pollution (e. g. road sand or salt, gasoline, storm water runoff, or other contaminant).

DEP can order any offending person, firm, or corporation to stop polluting and clean up the site. (A "person" for these purposes includes the state and any of its instrumentalities, such as a town or city). If the town does not remediate the site, DEP has the power to clean up the site itself, or contract for its remediation. The polluting municipality is liable for the costs of investigating, containing, removing, monitoring or mitigating the contamination, and the DEP commissioner can ask the attorney general to sue to recover clean-up costs and damages. By law, a polluter who negligently pollutes also may be liable for damages of one and one-half times the costs and expenses incurred; a polluter who willfully pollutes may be liable for damages of twice the costs and expenses (CGS § 22a-451).

In addition, state law specifically bars any person or municipality from polluting state waters or discharging treated or untreated wastes in violation of the law (CGS § 22a-427). State waters included underground bodies of water, and wastes include any substance which may pollute the waters (CGS § 22a-423).

CGS § 22a-428 authorizes the DEP commissioner to order any municipality (1) causing pollution of state waters, or (2) where a community pollution problem exists, to abate the pollution. (By law, a "community pollution problem" is the existence of pollution which the commissioner decides can best be abated by municipal action).

An individual also may sue a municipality under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act (CGS § 22a-14 through 20), which permits individuals or the attorney general to sue polluters, including political subdivisions of the state, such as towns, to protect the public trust in the state's air, water and other natural resources.

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