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State Senate Opts For 'Stripped-Down' Version Of Coakley Landfill Cleanup Bill

Annie Ropeik
/
NHPR

A state representative's plan to spur more clean-up at the Seacoast's Coakley Landfill Superfund site may be scaled back after a Senate vote Thursday.

The original proposal would have gotten the state involved in forcing the entities responsible for the pollution to pay for more thorough cleanup. 

That measure passed the state House last month.

But the Senate opted for what the bill's sponsor, Rep. Mindi Messmer, calls a “stripped-down version.”

It simply directs state officials to give the legislature more information about contamination at Coakley and other sites like it.

In a statement, Messmer, a Rye Democrat who's also running for Congress, says telling Coakley neighbors to wait is "simply unconscionable."

Legislators will now have to write and vote on a compromise version of the proposal.

Annie has covered the environment, energy, climate change and the Seacoast region for NHPR since 2017. She leads the newsroom's climate reporting project, By Degrees.
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