HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday that he has sued a Branford company accused of dumping toxic waste into the Branford River.
The lawsuit, filed in Hartford Superior Court, seeks hundreds of thousands of dollars for about two dozen alleged violations by Atlantic Wire, which makes industrial wire and other products.
It also seeks an injunction to stop the company from discharging any more waste into the river until it installs equipment to automatically stop discharges that exceed permissible levels.
Blumenthal said the company exceeded its permits last week, dumping about 7,500 gallons of caustic waste into the river. A similar spill in September killed hundreds of blue crabs.
''Atlantic Wire's environmental record is reprehensible and repugnant — repeatedly dumping poison into the Branford River, harming marine life and threatening human health,'' Blumenthal said.
A woman who answered the phone at Atlantic Wire on Tuesday said the company had no comment.
The Department of Environmental Protection also announced Tuesday that it has reached consent orders with four other companies accused of water discharge violations.
Allegheny Ludlum and Cytec Industries discharge waste into the Quinnipiac River, while Whyco Finishing Technologies is on the Naugatuck River and Electric Boat discharges into the Thames River in Groton.
The four companies were ordered to pay civil fines ranging from $14,000 to $32,000 and other penalties. The Connecticut Fund for the Environment had threatened to sue the companies over the violations but helped negotiate the consent orders to head off litigation. The organization is also a party to the Atlantic Wire lawsuit.
''From the beginning, our goal has been to get the government to act in a meaningful and timely manner against these chronic violators and that is exactly what has occurred,'' said Roger Reynolds, senior staff attorney for CFE. ''We have worked closely and cooperatively with DEP and the Attorney General to arrive at appropriate resolutions and actions.''