ABLE SERVICES

Environmental Justice

ABLE's Environmental Justice work focuses on environmental matters that directly affect the health, safety and welfare of families and communities in our 32-county service area.  ABLE attorneys provide legal representation, education, advocacy, and volunteer services in response to community-directed concerns. We have helped neighborhood groups living near foundries, incinerators, industrial cleaners and superfund sites.

Settlement reached in
Dayton Perma-Fix case

On behalf of clients from the neighborhood around the Dayton Perma-Fix Plant, ABLE filed several cases against the Perma-Fix Company. This included a complaint to enjoin the Army from bringing partially treated VX nerve agent (VX hydrolysate) to Perma-Fix for treatment. We also filed an appeal of the facility's sewer discharge permit to limit the toxic organics being emitted into the sewers.  The sewers are one source of air emissions into the neighborhood near Perma-Fix. ABLE also filed a Clean Air Act case in Federal Court against the company because of dangerous air emissions which made life in the neighborhood intolerable for many.

Before that case went to trial, the parties reached a settlement which provided, among other things, for substantial improvements at the facility, new permits and testing, compensation to the plaintiffs, and funding for a Neighborhood Environment Committee to monitor compliance with the settlement and to address environmental issues that may affect the community in the future.  ABLE continues to work with the neighborhood committee and continues to monitor compliance with the settlement requirements.