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City of Fitchburg, Mass. Fined for Stormwater Violations

Release Date: 02/02/2006
Contact Information:

U.S. EPA - New England Regional Office
February 2, 2006

Contact: David Deegan, 617-918-1017

(Boston) – The City of Fitchburg, Mass., will pay a $10,000 penalty to settle EPA claims that it failed to file required annual reports in 2004 and 2005 related to discharges from its sewer system.

EPA’s New England office pursued the case because the city failed to file reports that are required by its permit to discharge storm water into the North Nashua River and six tributaries to the North Nashua River. The North Nashua River is a tributary of the Nashua River, which is included on Massachusetts’ list of impaired water bodies.

In October 2005, EPA ordered the city to comply with the law and file reports for both 2004 and 2005. The city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, issued under the Clean Water Act, requires the city to file annual reports, due May 1 of each year, describing the city’s progress in implementing its stormwater management program.

“It’s very important that towns and cities comply with all of their obligations under the Clean Water Act to ensure that we are protecting both human health and the environment,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “Annual reporting required under a NPDES municipal stormwater permit lets us monitor a municipality’s compliance with stormwater discharge laws. Without this report, we cannot tell if a municipality is minimizing pollution from its stormwater.”

Of the 278 municipalities in New England from which EPA requires these yearly reports, only the City of Fitchburg failed to submit the annual reports from 2004 and 2005.

More information on stormwater requirements in New England: https://www.epa.gov/region1/npdes/stormwater/index.html .

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