Boston Harbor Pollution Suit Settled
Massachusetts on Wednesday settled a federal lawsuit over the pollution of Boston Harbor by agreeing to pay a $425,000 fine and to establish a $2-million trust fund to benefit the port and adjacent Massachusetts Bay.
The settlement ended three years of litigation between the state and federal environmental officials, a case that could have dragged on for years longer, officials said.
The trust is to be modeled after other funds set up to meet environmental needs, such as the Hudson River Foundation for Science and Environmental Research in New York and the Chesapeake Bay Trust in Maryland.
The Massachusetts Bay Environmental Trust is to advance scientific understanding of the harbor and the bay and to restore beaches and wildlife habitats damaged by harbor pollution, officials said.
The trust will manage the settlement money, which must be appropriated by the Legislature and spent by 1992. The trust is also authorized to accept payments from penalties, fees, gifts and federal grants.
“Our failure to clean up the harbor goes back years and years,” Gov. Michael S. Dukakis said. “We’re all responsible and we’re all going to have to take that responsibility.”
A 1985 U.S. District Court ruling on the federal government’s civil lawsuit held the Metropolitan District Commission responsible for violating the federal Clean Water Act by dumping raw sewage into the harbor.
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