FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENRD

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2006 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

City of Indianapolis Agrees to Make

$1.86 Billion
in Improvements to Sewer System
Settlement Expected to Reduce 7 Billion Gallons of
Harmful Discharges Annually
WASHINGTON — The city of Indianapolis has agreed to make an estimated $1.86
billion worth of improvements to resolve longstanding problems with overflows
from its sewer system, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced today. Indianapolis will make the improvements over 20
years to reduce the number of overflows—which currently occur approximately 60
times per year—to four or fewer times per year. The city will also pay a penalty of
$1,117,800, which will be divided evenly between the United States and Indiana.
The city also will spend $2 million on a supplemental environmental project to
eliminate failing septic systems.

Under the consent decree, Indianapolis has specifically agreed to implement a Long
Term Control Plan (LTCP) designed to greatly reduce overflows from its combined
sewer system (CSOs), and will implement another plan designed to eliminate
overflows from its sanitary sewer system (SSOs), and perform various other
remedial measures. The consent decree also provides that the city can reduce the
portion of the penalty to be paid to the state by undertaking further reductions in
the number of failing septic systems. All of these improvements will provide major
public health and environmental benefits. The injunctive relief provided under the
settlement will be among the highest-cost municipal Clean Water Act settlements to
date and will ultimately reduce the volume of Indianapolis’ untreated discharges by
7.2 billion gallons in an average year.

“With today’s consent decree, the city of Indianapolis is taking an important step
toward complying with the Clean Water Act,” said Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Assistant
Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources
Division. “We are pleased that we have reached a resolution to these matters, and
that the city has agreed to make the necessary improvements and committed funds
to ensure significant improvements to reduce untreated sewer discharges.”

“Through this agreement, Indianapolis has shown a real commitment to get rid of its
long-standing sewage problems,” said Granta Y. Nakayama, EPA’s assistant
administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “The agreement will not
only ensure compliance with the law, it will also benefit the citizens by significantly
improving water quality in the White River and its tributaries, which are important
natural resources and great assets to the city.”

“When the city’s combined sewer system was engineered about 100 years ago, it
was state-of-the-art in wastewater management, but it is not acceptable by today’s
standards,” said Thomas W. Easterly, commissioner of the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management. “In moving forward with a plan to reduce untreated
discharges to the White River and its tributaries, Indianapolis is meeting an
important environmental obligation and ensuring cleaner, healthier streams locally,
and for downstream communities.”

Today’s agreement is related to the city’s operation of its municipal wastewater and
sewer system, through which approximately 8 billion gallons of untreated sewage is
discharged each year into the White River and its tributaries from approximately
133 CSOs, and a lesser number of SSO and bypass locations. The Justice
Department has alleged that these discharges violate the Clean Water Act because
they exceed limitations and conditions in the City’s National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) permits or are otherwise unpermitted.

Indianapolis owns two large municipal advanced wastewater treatment plants

(AWTP), the Belmont AWTP and the Southport AWTP, as well as nearly 246
square miles of sewers that feed into the treatment plants. The sewer system, which
serves approximately 866,000 people, transports the city’s sewage for treatment at
the two plants prior to being discharged into area rivers and streams. Approximately
27 percent of the sewer system is a combined system located primarily in the
central, older parts of the city. The remaining 73 percent of the sewer system is a
sanitary sewer system. The city contracts with United Water, a private corporation,
to operate both the treatment plants and the sewer system.

The Department of Justice lodged today’s consent decree today in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The consent decree will be subject to a
30-day public comment period and subsequent judicial approval and is available on
the Justice Department website at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

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