Location: White Plains, New York | Status: Negotiating settlement
Summary: Save the Sound has brought an action in federal court in New York against National Express, LLC and its subsidiary, White Plains Bus Company (collectively, “NELLC”), for numerous violations of the Clean Water Act (“CWA” or “the Act”), seeking court orders for NELLC to comply with and refrain from further violating the CWA, to immediately implement required stormwater pollution control technologies, to take necessary corrective and restorative actions, and to pay civil penalties for their CWA violations, among other related remedies.
Industrial stormwater contains numerous harmful pollutants, with runoff from transportation facilities potentially carrying fuel, oil, heavy metals, detergents, phosphorus, and more into our waterways. Industrial stormwater pollution poses health risks to humans, harms aquatic life, closes beaches, and causes or contributes to our waterways not meeting water quality standards.
The Clean Water Act requires industrial facilities to implement pollution control measures to prevent illegal levels of industrial stormwater pollution from entering waterways.
For over five years, NELLC, which operates two vehicle and equipment storage and maintenance facilities in White Plains, NY, has consistently violated their CWA industrial stormwater permit. The facility has exceeded benchmarks for chemical oxygen demand (COD) or oil and grease in nearly every quarter since 2018. These exceedances demonstrate NELLC’s failure to implement adequate stormwater controls.
The Upper Bronx River, where these facilities are discharging, has been found to be polluted or impaired for failure to attain minimum daily average dissolved oxygen concentrations. The high levels of COD in NELLC’s stormwater runoff contributes to this water quality impairment, harms aquatic life, and impacts the community’s ability to safely fish in the river.
Latest Step: On October 16, 2024, Save the Sound, with our partners at Riverkeeper, sent NELLC a Notice of Violation and Intent to File Suit under the Clean Water Act. On December 16, 2024, we filed the Complaint in federal court.
Next Step: We are in discussions with NELLC to resolve the case. If negotiations fail, we are prepared to proceed with our Clean Water Act lawsuit in federal court.
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Page last updated: December 11, 2024