Danbury Settles Sewage Dumping Lawsuit

DANBURY, CT — The city will pay a $100,000 penalty to settle a lawsuit alleging it illegally dumped untreated sewage into the Limekiln Brook and Still River over the past five years.

An announcement from the Connecticut Fund For the Environment said the city agreed to take measures to ensure that it properly operates and maintains its sewage collection and treatment.

“We discovered the violations alleged in our complaint through a long and resource-intensive investigation of public records,” Jack Looney, staff attorney at Connecticut Fund for the Environment said in a statement. “When the EPA and DEEP did not initiate an enforcement action, CFE and the other environmental organizations used the citizen suit provisions of the federal law to bring this Clean Water Act enforcement suit.”

The complaint from the Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE), Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, and Friends of the Lake, Inc alleged the city discharged the sewage into Beaver Brook and Padanaram Brook, which polluted waterways with disease-causing bacteria.

The city has to abide by the following orders, according to the statement.

1. Pay a civil penalty to the United States in the amount of $100,000.
2. Abide by an injunction requiring that the city:
   • Properly report all sewage discharges to DEEP.
   • Develop and implement a system-wide program to inspect, clean, and maintain the Danbury wastewater collection system at a rate of at least 20 percent of its sanitary wastewater collection system per year.
   • Prepare and enforce a regulatory program to stop restaurant and food establishment discharges of Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG) which lead to sewage blockages and spills.
3. Pay the environmental organizations’ costs of litigation.

“This is an extremely important and welcome settlement, not only because it will bring much needed relief to the affected waterways, but also because it addresses the chronic problem in this state of underperforming wastewater treatment facilities,” Margaret Miner, executive director of Rivers Alliance of Connecticut said in a statement. “Contamination by sewage is all too common, and often leads to closed beaches, fish die-offs, and massive aquatic dead zones.”