Clean Water in the News

TWELVE MILE CREEK FACILITY 

State says the plant failed to do anything to improve its problems

By: Julia Oliver

Union County has been fined $45,000 for overflows at its biggest sewer plant in November, December and January, the N.C. Division of Water Quality said Friday.

In recent months, the state has expressed several concerns about the Twelve Mile Creek sewer plant. The plant is being expanded but has been unable to keep up with the area's fast-paced residential growth.

The state stopped issuing new sewer permits at the plant early this year and, worried about water conditions in the creek, halted the county's plans for a second expansion of the plant.

The plant also has a long history of environmental violations. In February, the Observer reported that the state had fined the county almost $100,000 for problems at the plant between 2003 and September 2006. No other similar-sized plant in the region -- and only one other in the state -- had been fined more.

Those fines weren't related to flow volume; they were issued because the sewage the plant released had not been treated to state standards designed to protect fish and people from harmful water conditions.

The fines related to the overflows were $10,000 for November, $10,000 for December and $25,000 in January.

"That's a high number," Division of Water Quality spokeswoman Susan Massengale said of the January fine. "Because they've had these repeated issues with flows. ... They weren't doing anything to manage that better."

The county, which collects data at the plant, knew about the overflows. But the state only recently finished processing the fine notices for December and January, Massengale said. The November fine was levied in April.

Because the plant also overflowed its limits in February and March, more fines could be coming.

"That is still being evaluated," Massengale said.