Independence agrees to pay EPA $255,000

Independence is more than a quarter of a million dollars lighter in the pocket after reaching an agreement with United States Environmental Protection Agency for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
Under terms of a consent decree released Tuesday in Kansas City, Independence will pay a penalty of $255,000 to the United States Justice Department and spend an additional $450,000 on a supplemental environmental project.
The city was documented for numerous violations, including 430 sanitary sewer overflows resulting in the discharge of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Missouri River since October 2000.
“This is a major step forward by Missouri’s fourth-largest city, and it will result in some very significant improvements to overall water quality in the Missouri River watershed,” said William Rice, the EPA’s acting regional administrator
As part of the settlement, the city is required to make a series of improvements to its sanitary sewer system to keep millions of gallons of untreated sewage from flowing into local urban streams, including Mill and Rock creeks, and the Missouri River watershed. The improvements  must eliminate overflows from pump stations and other spots in the sewer collection system for its Rock Creek wastewater treatment plant that serves western Independence.
The plant serves about 55,000 residential customers and 3,500 commercial sanitary sewer customers, approximately half of the residences and businesses in Independence, and a majority of all customers in Sugar Creek.
 “The city has made enormous progress over the last 15 years to eliminate overflows in neighborhoods and watersheds,” Water Pollution Control Director Dick Champion said in a statement, adding the city has spent a total of $25 million for capital improvements, $22 million of that on the sanitary sewer system, in the renewal of neighborhoods during the last 10 years. “We realize that we still have significant work ahead of us in continuing our pursuit to protect the environment and the quality of life of our citizens.”
The agreement stipulates that the work must be complete by 2015. Capital costs are estimated to be in the range of $35 to $39 million.