YOUNGSTOWN — The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding half of a $1,479,000 penalty from Youngstown because the city “defaulted” on following through with federally mandated wastewater improvements for more than two years.

Pedro Segura, a trial attorney with the DOJ’s environmental enforcement division, informed city officials in a Sept. 29 letter that the department had assessed the penalty for not starting two of the three required projects: an interceptor sewer to keep wastewater from flowing into Mill Creek Park and a new “wet weather facility” near the city’s wastewater treatment plant to better control sewage in heavier rainfalls.

Half of the penalties — $739,500 — must be paid to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the Ohio EPA allowed to demand for the other half as per the city’s federal consent decree to make the wastewater improvements, Segura wrote in the letter.

“The United States and the state reserve their rights to assess and collect further penalties and pursue added remedies for these violations,” Segura wrote. “To be clear, the United States believes that Youngstown has continued to violate the 2002 consent decree since June 30, 2021, and the United States reserves the right to assess further stipulated penalties that have accrued since then.”

Segura wrote that the city “defaulted on several of those requirements (in the agreed upon plan) and missed a number of enforceable milestones” starting in early 2020. The city met with the EPA on June 30, 2021, to request an extension of the missed deadline, he wrote.

“That meeting took place more than a year after Youngstown had started missing enforceable deadlines,” Segura wrote.

In the letter, Segura wrote: “Youngstown has continued to experience unacceptable discharges of untreated sewage to nearby receiving waters, including the Mahoning River and Mill Creek Park,” and Youngstown disclosed in a 2022 report that it had 1,040 combined sewer overflow “discharge events which resulted in discharges of approximately 730 million gallons of untreated effluent.”

Segura wrote there is a 30-day period under the consent decree for Youngstown to seek resolution for the penalties and violations.

The Vindicator obtained Segura’s letter and other documents Friday through a public records request.

City Law Director Jeff Limbian wrote a letter Monday to federal and state EPA officials formally submitting a notice of dispute.

“Youngstown has provided the United States and the state of Ohio with a proposal to modify Youngstown’s long-term control plan requirements pertaining to the wet weather facility and the Mill Creek Park interceptor project,” he wrote.

City council on Sept. 20 voted to use $5 million in American Rescue Plan funds to design the interceptor sewer project. The actual work would cost about $60 million to $70 million and take about six or seven years to complete, Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, said at that council meeting.

The interceptor sewer work to replace 13 lines that dump wastewater into Mill Creek is part of the city’s wastewater improvements required to be done under a 2014 settlement it reached with the federal EPA. The interceptor work was supposed to start in December 2019 under the agreed-upon plan.

The first phase to improve the city’s wastewater treatment plant is done.

The entire wastewater improvement work was estimated years ago to cost about $160 million.

In an Aug. 25 letter to Samantha Ricci, a trial attorney with DOJ’s environmental enforcement division, Terrence S. Finn, an attorney with Roetzel & Andress and hired by the city to assist with this matter, wrote that the cost of the wet weather facility has seen “a drastic increase” in cost and “over the past few years, Youngstown has repeatedly expressed its concern that” the facility “is most likely not the appropriate project for addressing the overflows.”

The wet water facility work was supposed to start in February 2022.

The federal EPA originally had ordered the city in 2002 to do $310 million worth of work, but it was negotiated down to $160 million in 2014 with the expectation it would be finished by Dec. 31, 2033.

Limbian said Friday: “The mayor wants to be certain that we are not inappropriately paying the federal government for penalties since we’re trying to save the taxpayers money. We don’t want to raise water and wastewater fees in order to pay proposed penalties to the federal government. The mayor has no plans to raise water or wastewater fees in order to satisfy the federal government.”

In a July 27 letter to Finn, Ricci proposed a “revised schedule that would accommodate Youngstown’s interest in performing updated monitoring and modeling.”

Ricci wrote: “To date, Youngstown has arguably accrued several million dollars in stipulated penalties for its noncompliance,” but “we are willing to recommend that the United States discount Youngstown’s stipulated penalty obligations substantially and settle the claim for the outstanding stipulated penalties for $100,000. This is a significant compromise given Youngstown’s improper suspension of most work on the projects in 2018” as well as “its continued failure to move (the) projects forward during the past two years and the number of deadlines that Youngstown has missed.”

Ricci asked that the remaining projects be finished 15 months earlier than the Dec. 31, 2033, deadline “because we are proposing that Youngstown start work on the Mill Creek interceptor project immediately, rather than 2025.”

She agreed to “slightly” delay the wet weather facility project and “if the city chooses to do so to show that an alternative project would meet the required performance criteria.”

Finn responded Aug. 25 that the city would agree to an earlier start date for the interceptor project, but not as soon as what the federal government requested.

Finn wrote: “Some of the United States’ proposed conditions are unfair and / or in direct conflict with Youngstown’s current (plan) and, therefore, Youngstown cannot agree to those proposed conditions.”

Finn objected to the $100,000 penalty writing that it was “not appropriate as part of this modification. Youngstown is already moving forward with two additional, non-consent decree projects that will result in water quality improvements.”

He added: “Youngstown was given the impression that US EPA was going to work with Youngstown. However, 14 months later, Youngstown received a short letter that merely denied its request. Until recently, the United States has failed to provide any type of a substantive response to the rationale and concerns presented by Youngstown.”

Ricci wrote Finn back on Sept. 11: “We are disappointed that Youngstown did not embrace the comprehensive settlement proposal that the United States made on July 27. Youngstown’s latest proposal rejects critical aspects of the United States’ proposal, including the suggestion that Youngstown could pay a deeply discounted stipulated penalty amount for years of missed deadlines as part of a comprehensive settlement package. The United States is unable to accept Youngstown’s latest proposal.”

She also wrote: “In light of the lack of progress in our discussion and the attendant delay, the United States is exploring its enforcement options under the consent decree.”

On Sept. 29, Segura informed the city of the $1,479,000 in penalties.

Limbian said: “The federal EPA is being particularly aggressive when we’re trying to adjust to all the changes that have occurred since that federal consent decree. We have a smaller population required to pay for something far too large for the number of citizens we have. The federal government has to understand the circumstances since that federal consent decree went into effect.”