The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Iowa have reached a proposed settlement on alleged violations of the 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. The proposal would also require Waterloo to pay a total of $272,000 in settlement shared between federal officials and the state.
Federal officials say that over a 7-year period Waterloo’s sewer system released wastewater containing raw sewage onto public and private property at least 500 times. The city has to present a plan for dealing with the sewage issues by December 31, 2017.
The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval of the federal court before it becomes final.