The Sierra Club officially filed a lawsuit against the UW-Madison Wednesday, alleging the university's Charter Street Power Plant has continually violated the Clean Air Act.
This lawsuit comes six months after the Sierra Club sent the university a certified letter outlining areas in which they allege the university violated the act.
""We had notified the university and brought it to their attention over a year ago, and actually had hoped to be able to get them to agree to compromise to get the thing retired and cleaned up,"" said Bruce Nilles, attorney for the Sierra Club. ""They were non-responsive.""
The university said they followed law when modifying the Charter Street Plant during the last decade.
""To the best of our knowledge, we have operated the plant in accordance with all applicable legal requirements,"" UW-Madison spokesperson for communications Dennis Chaptman said.
He added that the university must look further into the Sierra Club's allegations before they formulate a game plan on how to legally combat the lawsuit. ""Our response [to the lawsuit] is pretty brief: our lawyers have not yet had a chance to analyze the claims that the Sierra Club makes in its lawsuit.""
Administration at the Charter Plant said they knew the Sierra Club was studying the situation at the plant for some time. The lawsuit is ""not news"" to Faramarz Vakili, associate director at the plant.
Vakili is ready to implement whatever demands come from the lawsuit. ""We will do what we are asked to do in the process,"" he said.
Among the allegations Sierra Club cited against the Charter Street Plant include: failure to obtain a permit, to notify the DNR and to install modern pollution controls when renovating the plant over the last decade.
Nilles, an alumni of UW-Madison's law school, said it is discouraging that the same institution that taught him about global warming may also be contributing to it in its negligence to follow the Clean Air Act.
""It is somewhat ironic and highly unfortunate that on one end we are educating the world about the problem of global warming, and at the same time the university steadfastly refuses to put forward a plan to curb its own emissions,"" Nilles said.
