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City of Indianapolis Agrees to Reduce Pollution at Lower Costs
WASHINGTON – The city of Indianapolis and its 800,000 residents experienced Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s) totaling approximately 7.8 billion gallons per year prior to 2006.
A consent decree approved by a federal court in 2006 required the city to construct 31 CSO control measures, including a 24-million gallon capacity shallow interceptor sewer, to reduce the city’s overflows to approximately 642 million gallons per year. Those improvements were expected to cost approximately $1.73 billion over a 20-year period.
After the 2006 consent decree was approved, the city undertook additional engineering studies of its system and ultimately proposed a number of changes to its system to make it more efficient and to further reduce the numbers and volumes of overflows. The first change, which was approved in a 2009 amendment to the 2006 consent decree, eliminated the shallow interceptor in favor of a 54-million gallon, 25 mile long Deep Rock Tunnel Connector.
The second set of changes to the system would be achieved through the amendment announced today. With the proposed changes, the city is now expected to reduce the amount of total annual discharge to about 414 million gallons, a significant improvement from the 642 million gallons that were expected under the original consent decree, and reduce the cost of the project by about $444 million.
The project’s modifications would also result in an accelerated construction schedule to capture 7 billion gallons of CSO discharges and their associated disease-causing organisms.
“Only under unique circumstances would we modify the terms of a settlement,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The proposed modifications will benefit the environment and reduce costs for the city of Indianapolis. In my view, this is a classic ‘win-win’”
A copy of the proposed Amendment, which must be approved by a federal court, is available on the Justice website at www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html
Defendant/respondent: City of Indianapolis
Exact criminal charges: Clean Water Act Violations
City and state: Indianapolis, Indiana
Exact date with month/day/year: Not specified
Sentence or outcome: Proposed settlement
Dollar amounts where applicable: $1.73 billion, $444 million
Key Facts
- State: Indiana
- Category: Public Corruption
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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