🔒Blackstone solid waste firm handed injunction amid alleged illegal disposal lawsuit

A Blackstone waste management company and its owners have been hit with a preliminary injunction from the Massachusetts Superior Court, ordering the company to suspend illegal solid waste disposal as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the state’s Attorney General’s Office. The preliminary injunction was filed against Marchand LLC, which does businesses under several names including Marchand Environmental, and its owners Michael L. Marchand and Michael Marchand, according to a Tuesday press release from the AGO. Per the order, the Marchand Environmental and its owners must cease storing, processing, transferring, and disposing of solid waste and stop activities that remove, fill, dredge, or alter protected resource areas and buffer-zones at the company’s 25 Elm St. location and its abutting properties. Marchand Environmental’s main phone line had been disconnected as of Friday morning and neither owner was able to be reached by phone. The preliminary injunction mandates Marchand Environmental allow the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to conduct monthly visits to make sure no septage is dumped on the Elm Street location or Blackstone town property. The Superior Court’s order is the latest development stemming from a lawsuit filed by the AGO in April 2024 in which the office alleged Marchand Environmental violated Massachusetts Wetlands Protection, Clean Waters, and Solid Waste Disposal acts in addition to State Environmental Code by:

• Allegedly increasing its business area through collecting wastes, including wood waste, construction and demolition debris, from several neighboring communities
• Allegedly dumping solid waste, including stone cuttings, wood waste, and black silt, in protected wetlands resource areas
• Allegedly dumping septage onto the property that leaks into wetland resource areas, resulting in dangerously high levels of fecal coliform bacteria contamination that flowed into downgradient town wetlands

Through the lawsuit, the AGO is pursuing civil penalties and injunctive relief, including restoration of wetlands and water quality. Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.