HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) - The Hammond Sanitary District will pay a $561,000 fine and make capital improvements to manage combined sewer overflows into the Grand and Little Calumet Rivers under an agreement with federal and state agencies announced Friday.
A consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management also calls for the district serving five Lake County communities to spread capital improvements over 18 years to reduce overflows of untreated sewage and industrial wastewater during heavy rains.
The district says the agreement allows it to avoid a threatened lawsuit and gives it until mid-2018 to come up with a plan for a series of construction projects to prevent more than 1 billion gallons of combined sewage and stormwater from discharging untreated into the waterways.
The EPA said the settlement resolves long-standing violations of the Clean Water Act and “will also protect Hammond residents from exposure to raw sewage caused by sewer backups into their homes.”
Combined sewer systems carry sewage from homes, industrial and commercial wastewater, and stormwater runoff in a single system of pipes to treatment plants. During heavy rains, the systems can overflow into waterways.
The Hammond Sanitary District is made up of Hammond and Munster and also serves the municipalities of Griffith, Highland, and Whiting. It says it reached a deal with the town of Griffith in November under which the district will receive increased monthly payments and $2.7 million in additional payments for Griffith’s share of operating costs and capital projects.
The district says it’s working with the town of Highland to finalize a similar agreement.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott issued a statement saying the city was “pleased with how hard the Hammond Sanitary District fought over the past five years to get the best deal possible for our customers and respective communities.”
“We learned lessons from other Indiana communities to make sure that we understand what projects would be required and ensure we had the maximum reasonable time possible to construct them,” McDermott said.
It’s not clear how much the capital improvements ultimately will cost the district, but EPA’s website says the city of Indianapolis will spend about $1.86 billion through 2025 for to reduce its overflows by 7.6 billion gallons.
The Justice Department says the southern Indiana city of Jeffersonville will pay between $100 million and $150 million to improve its sewer system to minimize or eliminate overflows.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.