NEW HAVEN >> A month after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from a developer claiming the city was not properly addressing wastewater backup, the developer has filed a similar suit in state court seeking to fix the alleged improprieties.
The lawsuit filed by developer 26 Crown Street Associates last week in state court names the city and the Greater New Haven Regional Water Pollution Control Authority as defendants.
New Haven city spokesman Laurence Grotheer issued a statement Wednesday on the lawsuit.
“In accordance with its longstanding policy and practice, the City withholds comment on pending litigation,” Grotheer said in the statement.
The lawsuit alleges the city and the wastewater facility are not doing enough to address stormwater overflow polluting Long Island Sound and their properties.
It alleges neither party has adequately maintained the more than 550 miles of piping and 30 pumping stations comprising the wastewater infrastructure.
Mirman said the two defendants are violating a permit issued by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The lawsuit claims the overflow is releasing untreated wastewater to Crown Street properties since at least August 2012.
It repeatedly refers to the defendants’ inactions as creating a nuisance to developers.
The lawsuit dismissed in July was initially filed in federal court in 2015.