Town joins in with lawsuit against plant water deal
BURRILLVILLE – Following in the footsteps of the Conservation Law Foundation, the town of Burrillville announced Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit seeking a declaration that Johnston has no legal right under the 1915 Act to obtain water from Providence for Invenergy’s proposed natural gasfired power plant in Pascoag.
On Jan. 11, the Johnston City Council approved a long-term agreement to sell water to the company, but the town argues in its lawsuit filed in Superior Court on Monday that selling water to Invenergy for use at a power plant is not a use anticipated by the 1915 Act that established the Providence Water Supply.
Like the Conservation Law Foundation, which filed an identical suit on Tuesday, the town is asking a Superior Court judge to issue a summary judgment in the matter.
“The town will refrain from further comment while this matter is in the courts,” the town said in a statement issued Wednesday.
According to the lawsuits, the current the version of the 1915 Act provides that certain cities and towns, including the Town of Johnston, ‘shall have the right to take and receive water … for use for domestic, fire and other ordinary municipal water supply purposes.” Johnston’s selling water to Invenergy for Invenergy to use at a power plant located in Burrillville is not a use by Johnston “for domestic, fire, or ordinary municipal water supply purposes,” the complaint says. “Johnston therefore has no legal right to purchase water from Providence for resale to Invenergy.”
Three weeks ago, the state Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB), the agency reviewing the plant application, unanimously
voted to deny separate motions by Burrillville and the Conservation Law Foundation to dismiss Invenergy’s application. The town’s original motion to dismiss was filed in September on the grounds that Invenergy’s application is incomplete and did not include information regarding all required support facilities, including water resources. The EFSB, which will have final say on whether the plant is built, voted a month later in October to suspend the application and ordered the company to report back by Jan. 11 with a new plan to secure water for the $700 million Clear River Energy Center after two water suppliers in Burrillville rejected proposals to sell water.
On Jan. 11, the last day of the suspension period and the day after the Johnston City Council approved a long-term agreement to sell water to the company, Invenergy filed its revised water supply plan.
The town has argued that Invenergy’s new water plan in partnership with the town of Johnston changes the processing methods of the power plant and includes process that were not known to the town, the EFSB, or the other agencies that provided advisory opinions to the EFSB back in September of 2016.
Meanwhile, the EFSB will most likely ask the state Department of Environmental Management, Department of Transportation, Providence Water Supply Board, Statewide Planning and the towns of Burrillville and Johnston to weigh in on Invenergy’s new water supply plan. A more definitive list of who will be invited to submit additional advisory opinions will be discussed at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 21. At that hearing, the board will also hear oral arguments on the latest round of motions the town of Burrillville and the Conservation Law Foundation have filed with regard to the new water plan.
The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. at the Public Utilities Commission Offices, 89 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick.