Not an option — 02/10/10 » Editorials » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Editorials

Discussion

February 9, 2010

Not an option — 02/10/10

Bankrupting Louisa surely was not among lawsuit’s goals

Anonymous The Daily Independent Tue Feb 09, 2010, 05:42 PM EST

U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar is right when he says the American Canoe Association essentially “reached the goal of its litigation — to force Louisa to comply with the Clean Water Act regulations.” However, we doubt if the goals of American Canoe and the Sierra Club in the suit they filed against the city of Louisa in 2001 included bankrupting an eastern Kentucky town of 2,000.

But that is what could happen if the whopping $418,720 in attorney fees and $62,165 in other expenses Thapar has ordered Louisa to pay is not substantially reduced. Louisa City Attorney Elder E. “Bud” Adams Jr. is right when he says forcing the small town to pay the entire sum at one time would bankrupt the city and “obviously disrupt the vital functions of the city.” Instead of investing tax dollars for vital services like road maintenance and police and fire protection, the city would be forced to shell out the equivalent of more than $20,000 per resident to pay the fees of attorneys in Washington, D.C.

To be sure, the lawsuit had a positive impact. Within a few months after American Canoe filed the suit accusing the city of violating the federal Clean Water Act by polluting the Big Sandy River with discharges from its water treatment plant, the city reached a settlement with the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet in which it agreed to renovate its water treatment plant and be in compliance with the Clean Water Act by March of 2003.

While the city didn’t meet that deadline, the completion of its new water treatment plant in October of 2003 did bring the city into compliance in the eyes of the state cabinet.

American Canoe’s lawsuit was dismissed in June 2002 for lack of standing, but the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals overrode that dismissal and American Canoe’s suit was reinstated in November 2004.

All this legal maneuvering costs money, and Thapar has ruled Louisa is responsible for paying American Canoe’s legal fees. The city not only disputes the amount of the legal fees but also argues the city should not be responsible for any of the legal fees of either American Canoe or the Sierra Club.

It is time for reason to prevail. While the lawsuit may have helped shorten the timetable for Louisa to be in compliance with federal law, we have little doubt that the city eventually would have been forced to make the required improvements to cease polluting the Big Sandy River. After all, the city reached its agreement with the state cabinet to make those improvements without the active involvement of either American Canoe or the Sierra Club.

Our hope is that the legal fees owed by the city are substantially reduced and that a reasonable, affordable timetable for paying those fees is established.

After all, bankruptcy for the city would be counterproductive. Not only would the city be unable to provide essential services to its residents, but it also would lack the resources to continue to properly operate its water treatment plant and remain in compliance with the Clean Water Act.

Text Only

Editorials

Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.

February 10, 2012
Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.

February 9, 2012
'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.

February 7, 2012
Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.

February 7, 2012
Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

February 6, 2012
Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.

February 6, 2012
Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.

February 4, 2012
Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.

February 3, 2012
Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.

February 2, 2012
Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.

February 1, 2012
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

Discussion

Not an option — 02/10/10

Bankrupting Louisa surely was not among lawsuit’s goals

Site Map

Contact Us