PWSA pleads guilty to violating Clean Water Act with discharges

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has pleaded guilty to Clean Water Act violations in connection with a federal investigation of sludge discharge into the Allegheny River.

On Tuesday, PWSA pleaded to one count of violating its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit by discharging sludge and to one count of making false statements in reports about the amount of sludge it was sending to its waste treatment facility.

The plea follows the indictment last month of Glenn Lijewski, of Pittsburgh, the Aspinwall Drinking Water Treatment Plant supervisor, on charges of violating the Clean Water Act and two counts of violating the PWSA’s Clean Water Act Industrial User Permit.

The indictment accuses Mr. Lijewski of being directly responsible for the unauthorized discharge of sludge from the water plant’s clarifiers into the river in violation of PWSA’s discharge permit.

The charges further allege Mr. Lijewski directed other plant workers to discharge sludge into the river and, during a four-year period when the sludge flow meters were broken, Mr. Lijewski directed employees to file false reports estimating sludge flow amounts instead of real numbers in violation of PWSA’s Industrial User Permit.

PWSA said it had cooperated fully with the federal investigation.

Under the terms of the plea, PWSA will be placed on probation for three years and pay $500,000 into a self-funded compliance fund, the U.S. attorney’s office said. PWSA cannot include the fund’s cost in any rate proposals to the state Public Utility Commission, and the fund will be used to pay for an environmental compliance

program to which PWSA must adhere, prosecutors said.

That program will be subject to approval by the U.S. attorney’s office, which will monitor the plan along with the Environmental Protection Agency.

PWSA must also provide annual environmental audits to the U.S. attorney and the EPA, and the audits will be available on the PWSA’s website.

In addition, PWSA will be required to install an environmental compliance manager at the Aspinwall plant who will be authorized to receive complaints and conduct investigations concerning environmental issues.

And PWSA is required to ensure employees are able to report environmental violations without fear of retaliation, according to the terms of the plea.

U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV said he will sentence PWSA in May.

The case against Mr. Lijewski is pending.