Sioux City Officials Face Lawsuit For Manipulating Wastewater Tests
A legal showdown between a U.S. state and one of its largest cities has been launched over alleged falsification of wastewater data and its resulting environmental harm.
“The state of Iowa … is suing Sioux City over what it says was the city’s manipulation of wastewater testing results and dangerous pollution of the Missouri River in a scheme that saw the wastewater plant’s former supervisor sentenced to jail,” Insurance Journal reported. “The lawsuit seeks to stop the city’s wastewater plant from violating wastewater safety levels. It also asks the court to assess a civil penalty of $5,000 for each day standards were violated, putting the city at risk of being fined millions of dollars.”
The state accused the city’s wastewater plant of increasing effluent chlorine levels on days that it was tested for E. coli, disinfecting the wastewater that was then discharged into local source water and submitting those results to the state’s department of natural resources. Then, on non-testing days, it would lower chlorine levels and discharge wastewater that was not properly disinfected. Allegedly, this was going on from 2012 to 2015.
“A federal investigation found they would briefly raise [chlorine levels] to as much as 120 gallons per hour on testing days from 2.5 gallons per hour at other times,” according to the Des Moines Register. “However, [the suit] alleges, the plant could not sustain those chlorine levels and that doing so would have released dangerous amounts of the chemical — toxic to fish, wildlife and recreational users — into the river.”
The lawsuit suggests that the need to process wastewater from industrial operations is what drove the treatment facility to falsify its data. City officials have defended the actions by arguing that its highest-ranking members were not aware of the scheme.
“Sioux City officials maintain through their attorney that senior city leaders were unaware of the employees’ falsifications before reporting them in June 2015 — a few months after an employee sent an anonymous tip to state regulators,” per the Register. “They also dispute the claim that the plant was unable to function at capacity at the time.”
More details will emerge as the lawsuit moves forward. Depending on a potential ruling, additional Sioux City officials could be held accountable for putting the health of the public and environment at risk, or they could be exonerated.
To read more about how wastewater treatment operations utilize chlorine, visit Water Online’s Wastewater Disinfection Solutions Center.