The City of Hattiesburg has made a settlement – technically known as a consent decree – with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality that accompanies a lawsuit by the EPA regarding the 2012 discovery of unreported sanitary sewer overflows in the system.
As part of the consent decree, the city will pay a fine of $165,600 for unreported violations of sewer overflows – which occur when stormwater gets into the sewer system from inflow and infiltration – and complete certain measures that are expected to cost approximately $45 million over the next 16 years.
“In summary, this consent decree recognizes the mistakes of the past; however, it also recognizes the many steps that the city has been taking in … operations in the recent years, and that includes the previous administration,” Mayor Toby Barker said Thursday at a news conference. “Looking forward, it commits the city to an aggressive 16-year plan to modernize both our sewer structures and the operations of the actual sewer system.”
During heavy rain events, the system does not have enough capacity to handle the high volume of stormwater and wastewater, which causes sewer manholes and lift stations to overflow with a combination of sewer and stormwater. Sanitary sewer overflows are a byproduct of aging infrastructure and are a violation of a section of the Clean Water Act.
In September 2012, the EPA reported the violations, and negotiations began between the U.S. Department of Justice, the EPA and MDEQ, along with then-Mayor Johnny DuPree.
In November 2017, the city self-reported that almost 900 sanitary sewer overflows had not been reported as required by law from 2012 to 2016.
“By self-reporting these violations, we were able to (put a halt to) the amount of civil penalties incurred by the City of Hattiesburg,” Barker said. “Furthermore, I want everybody to know that under the direction of Alan Howe, our Water and Sewer director, the city has been reporting (overflows) consistently since 2018.”
In addition, during the negotiation period from 2013 to now, the city has proactively completed several other measures, including spending almost $25 million in sewer rehabilitation and remediation. That includes COMSWIP, otherwise known as Comprehensive Sewer and Water Improvement Projects. With those projects, the city has been replacing, upgrading and repairing sewer pipes.
“Secondly, there was an extensive investigation of the gravity sewer testing, with smoke systems and cameras, which resulted in a better sewer mapping system,” Barker said. “In short, we have a better idea of the quality of the sewer system throughout the city.”
The city will now be required to replace and upgrade its infrastructure over the next 16 years by working in two specific priority areas consisting of 32 sewer bases, mostly in the older parts of the city.
That initiative will begin with four years of early action projects, followed by 12 years of strategic rehabilitation and remediation of the wastewater collection system.
That measure will reduce the amount of inflow and infiltration in order to eliminate overflows.
“Secondly, it requires the implementation of operation and maintenance programs,” Barker said. “These will continue establishing and solidifying better SSO reporting practices – which have already begun under Alan Howe’s leadership – modernizing the mapping management of our infrastructure, personnel and equipment, and developing proactive practices that can prevent SSOs.”
In addition, the city will begin a supplemental environmental project, in which the city will spend $220,800 within the next four years to replace defective private laterals, or lines, from the main to an actual residence.
“This is important, because sewer lines on private property – particularly in these priority areas – are a major source of inflow and infiltration,” Barker said.
Barker said residents will not see an immediate increase on their water and sewer bills as a result of these measures.
“The good news is that hard decisions were made before this, knowing this was coming,” he said. “The last city council, back in 2016, voted on a series of four 5-percent rate increases, the last of which took effect last September. We do not plan on recommending a rate increase to the city council this year.
“Will there be incremental increases in your water rate over a 16-year period? Probably at some point. But we have done enough in planning for this moment to keep those to a minimum.”
