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Holyoke Settles Clean Water Act Violations for $27,000

Release Date: 02/01/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: David Deegan, EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1017

For Immediate Release: February 1, 2005; Release # dd050107

BOSTON - The City of Holyoke has agreed to pay $27,000 to settle claims that it failed to fully implement its EPA approved industrial pretreatment program in accordance with its federal discharge permit and federal pretreatment regulations at the city's wastewater treatment plant.

The city's permit, reissued in 2000, requires it to regulate industrial users that discharge wastewater into the city's wastewater treatment plant. Water discharged to the city's wastewater treatment plant is eventually discharged into the Connecticut River.

According to the EPA's Sept. 30, 2004 complaint, in the years 2000 through 2003, the city failed to:

• adequately document inspections of industrial users;
• re-issue permits to all industrial users; and
• take enforcement action and publish a notice that an industrial user was in significant noncompliance for exceeding a chromium discharge limit.

The complaint was based on information obtained by EPA during a September 2003 inspection. Officials at the treatment plant were told of the violations during this inspection and in a follow-up letter.

A report from the facility in August 2004 and an inspection in September 2004 indicated the city had corrected the violations.

"Many organizations - public and private - are doing their part to make the Connecticut a cleaner, healthier river," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator for EPA's New England office "This action will help ensure that Holyoke and other communities along the river understand their responsibility to adhere to the laws aimed at improving water quality in the river."

More information on EPA's enforcement of environmental laws related to clean water in New England is available at: https://www.epa.gov/ne/enforcement/water/index.html .

Related Information:
Water Enforcement in New England
Clean Water Act
Wastewater