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Michael Leon, chair of the firm’s Environmental Law practice group, was quoted in “Barnstable County shifts blame for wastewater woes” in the Cape Cod Times on October 27. The article discusses the fact that Barnstable County officials are deflecting legal blame for the Cape’s wastewater problems in response to a threatened lawsuit by the Conservation Law Foundation. Mike notes that typically counties are not the level of government responsible for controlling pollution. "It's not the responsibility of the county to solve these problems," Mike said.

Mike points out that if everything was frozen when the county first developed the area wide plan the legal maneuver may have made more sense. He goes on to say the answer to the question of who should be responsible for cleaning up the Cape's waters is complicated. An argument could be made, for example, that the state is responsible even though it was not included as a defendant in the lawsuit or threatened lawsuit.