Ct residents Help for John Fitch

[dickita15]

John Fitch one of the last of the legendary drivers of the 50’s is in trouble with the state for trying to do the right thing. If you are a CT resident take a moment to tell you legislators your thoughts. Contact info is at ct.gov. This is a copy of an email a friend of mine sent:

Dear Governor Rell:
A friend of mine and a true patriot, 90 year old John Fitch of Lime Rock, CT, needs assistance. Among events in his life, John was a fighter pilot in WW II and a POW in Germany. He also invented the Fitch Inertial Barrier (the yellow barrels seen prior to bridge abutments and highway exit ramps). His whole life has been dedicated to research in automotive safety. I have included two websites below that explain his situation and hope you can help this fine gentleman. Thank you,

]http://www.cwnicholls.net/fitch/fitch.html
]http://www.docrebuild.com/curr-evnt/currentevents-116.html

[pgipson]

Dick

Not a CT resident, but nonetheless outraged, I sent my e-mail sent to Gov Rell.

[zchris]

The State of Mass, when not trucking it to NH, caps old landfills with this petro/sand. It is all about money and the corrupt business that has grown up around it. I was in the business back in the 1980's.
Chris

[wdether]

Does anyone know of an environmental lawyer in Connecticut that would be willing to help John out "pro bono"? In addition, does anyone know somone familiar with the remediation rules of CT DEP to make sure John is not getting screwed by the CT DEP and/or the company doing the remediation.

[Greg Amy]

Does anyone know of an environmental lawyer in Connecticut that would be willing to help John out "pro bono"?
Problem is, the law isn't on his side.

I had a LOOOONG, kinda heated, argument with my geologist brother-in-law and his wife who works for the state DEP. Though I think it's a RAW deal, the law basically says he owns the liability for the underground tanks. The real answers are long, but the short version, as I understand it, is:

- the state granted citizens notice back in the 80's they were going to crack down on underground tanks
- the state gave a grace period for these issues to be addressed
- the state made it clear the landowner would carry all responsibility for cleanup
- and the state notified residents that they should buy liability insurance "just in case".

Further, there apparently used to be a fund for residents, but now it's only for commercial properties. The change was precipitated by VAST corruption within contractors, who raped the fund(s) dry.

Finally, my geologist B-I-L suggests that anyone caught in this loop spend the money to hire their own consultant/contractor, because there is ZERO incentive for cleanup contractors to minimize costs - and a LOT of incentive to drag out the process - and they will rape private citizens of every penny they've got.

Unfortunately, Fitch's best direction is not to hire a lawyer, but to hire a geologist to run the project for him. There's just no legal way out of it...

GA

[wdether]

Greg,
Thanks for the background information. After reading your post I agree the best course would be to hire someone to keep an eye on the remediation contractor.

Ok, does anyone know of a good geologist/consultant/contractor to help John?