Waterloo must pay $272,000 to settle clean water act violations

CEDAR RAPIDS – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Iowa have reached a proposed settlement resolving allegations of Clean Water Act violations by the City of Waterloo. The agreement will require the city to assess its sanitary sewer system and develop a master plan to eliminate unlawful sewer overflows, including discharges of sewage into the Cedar River and sewage backups into homes and businesses.

A proposed consent decree, lodged yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa requires Waterloo to perform comprehensive assessments of the capacity and condition of its waste water treatment facility and sanitary sewer system, which includes approximately 400 miles of sanitary sewer lines.

Based on the information developed by those assessments, by December 31, 2017, the city will be required to submit to the EPA and the State a master plan describing remedial measures necessary to address the sewer system’s problems with capacity, inflow and infiltration, with the goal of eliminating sanitary sewer overflows and bypasses. Following the master plan’s review and approval by the EPA and the State, Waterloo would then have until December 31, 2032, to complete all necessary work on its sewer system.

Additionally, the consent decree would require Waterloo to pay a total of $272,000 in settlement shared between the United States and the State of Iowa, complete a footing drain removal program that it has already begun, follow its sanitary sewer overflow response plan, and implement a Capacity, Management, Operations and Maintenance (“CMOM”) program for its sanitary sewer system.

The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval of the federal court before it becomes final.