9/9/13?DoJ, EPA, and DHEC announced a proposed settlement today with the City of Columbia to resolve violations of the CWA, including unauthorized overflows of untreated raw sewage. Columbia has agreed to undertake a thorough assessment of, and implement extensive improvements to, its sanitary sewer system at an estimated cost of $750 million.
In addition, Columbia will implement a $1 million supplemental environmental project to restore streams, reduce flooding, and improve water quality in segments of Rocky Branch, Smith Branch and Gills Creek, waterways that run through historically low income and minority neighborhoods.
?In this settlement, the city of Columbia has taken responsibility for its aging sewer treatment system,? said U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina Bill Nettles. ?The city?s leadership and engineers have worked many long, hard hours with the engineers at the EPA and the Department of Health and Environmental Control in hammering out a solution that addresses the problems in the City sewer system, improves the quality of our rivers and streams, and the health and safety of South Carolinians for decades to come. For that we are grateful.?
?Sewage overflows are a major problem that affects water quality in the Southeast and across the entire country because of aging infrastructure,? said Acting EPA Regional Administrator Stan Meiburg. ?Bringing systems like Columbia?s into compliance is one of EPA's top enforcement priorities, and thr