The City of Greenville, MS (City) owns and operates the Greenville Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTP), approximately 200 miles of sanitary sewer lines, and 100 sanitary sewer pump stations and associated appurtenances. The system's service population is approximately 34,700 persons.
The complaint seeks injunctive relief and civil penalties and alleges four claims under the CWA and the Mississippi Air and Water Pollution Control Law (MAWPCL) § 49-17-1 et seq. These claims are: (1) unauthorized discharges into navigable waters; (2) failure to comply with NPDES permit conditions for operation and maintenance of its sanitary sewer system, (3) failure to comply with NPDES permit effluent discharge limitations, and (4) failure to comply with NPDES permit conditions regarding timely reporting noncompliance.
The Partial Consent Decree only partially resolves the City's CWA and MAWPCL violations. The Partial Consent Decree requires the City to complete Early Action Projects, develop and implement capacity, management, operations, and maintenance (CMOM) programs, and conduct sewer system evaluation/rehabilitation (SSER) for Groups 1 and 2, which account for 80% of SSOs. The work under the Partial Consent Decree will be completed over the next six years.
The City is approximately 80% African American, and over a third of the population is below the poverty level. Population has been decreasing and is projected to decline in the future.
The Partial Consent Decree requires the City to prioritize sanitary sewer rehabilitation work in areas that have been identified by the EPA as potentially having environmental justice issues (minority and/or low income neighborhoods).
To increase transparency, the Partial Consent Decree requires the City to post on its website instructions to the public for receiving email notice when Deliverables that are required to be prepared and/or submitted by the City pursuant to the Partial Consent Decree are posted to the City's website.
The Partial Consent Decree includes provisions that take into account EPA's encouragement of practices that improve the resilience of cities' sewer systems to the impacts of climate change. Specially, the Partial Consent Decree states, "[a]ll Work shall be performed using sound engineering practices to ensure that construction, management, operation and maintenance of the Sewer System complies with the CWA, including practices to improve the resilience of the Sewer System to the impacts of climate change," and directs the City to utilize EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities Initiative and EPA's Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool Version 2.0.
16 pounds of total phosphorus.
A civil penalty for the City will be deferred and assessed when a final CD or other settlement is entered.
The State of Mississippi, acting through the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, will join as a co‑plaintiff and bring its own parallel claims under State law, the MAWPCL, Miss. Code Ann. § 49-17-1 et seq.
The proposed Partial Consent Decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi,, the settlement will be subject to a 30-day public comment period. Information on submitting comments is available at the Department of Justice website.