YOUNGSTOWN — The federal government told a judge that it will agree to Youngstown’s plans to reduce the scope of a major wastewater improvement project because the city compressed the schedule to finish it and because the city is doing additional work.

“This amendment has been negotiated at arm’s length and in good faith, and that this amendment is fair, reasonable and in the public interest,” according to a Friday court filing, referred to as a “notice of lodging of consent decree agreement.”

The notice added: “The United States is not requesting any action by the court at this time on the proposed amendment.”

That’s because, according to the filing, the public will be asked to comment on the proposed consent decree amendment. Once the amendment is filed in the Federal Register, which is expected shortly, the public will have 30 days to comment.

The notice states: “The United States reserves the right to withdraw or withhold its consent if the comments regarding the amendment disclose facts or consideration indicating that the amendment is inappropriate, improper or inadequate.”

It adds: “The United States respectfully requests that the court await, before considering whether to approve the proposed consent decree amendment, a subsequent submission by the United States regarding any comments received during the public comment period and the United States’ position regarding approval of the proposed consent decree amendment.”

The filing was signed by Pedro Segura, trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Section, and Elizabeth Berry, an assistant U.S. attorney.

At the center of the dispute is a requirement in a 2014 consent decree signed by the city to build a 100-million-gallon-per-day wet weather facility. That structure would treat excess combined sewage during heavy rainstorms and then release the water.

In a March 15, 2024, motion by the city to reopen the consent decree, it insisted the facility is too large and expensive.

The project’s initial estimate was $62 million, but its cost is now more than $240 million, according to a Nov. 12 amended motion to modify the consent decree filing from attorney Terrence S. Finn of the Roetzel & Andress law firm in Akron, which represents the city.

The city asked Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Ohio in that motion to permit the consent decree to be amended for the construction of a wet weather facility that could treat 80 million gallons of wastewater per day. The city hasn’t determined the cost of a smaller facility.

While the federal government had previously rejected a reduction in the scope of the work, Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works, told The Vindicator on May 30 that the federal government has agreed to the city’s request to build the facility to handle 80 million gallons per day.

The latest filing by the federal government confirmed that with the city also agreeing to “cloth-disk filter media technology for high-rate treatment of wet weather flows.” The filter removes solids from water.

The city of Youngstown and the state of Ohio approved the modifications to the project, according to an April 22 status report filed with Boyko.

In the latest court filing, the federal government agreed to reduce the size of the wet weather facility because the city is diverting 35.5 million gallons of combined sewage annually into the Mahoning River in an ongoing project, costing more than $9 million, as well as an earlier deadline on the wet weather facility and a compressed schedule on an interceptor sewer project to keep wastewater from 13 lines from flowing into Mill Creek Park’s Lake Glacier and Lake Cohasset.

The city agreed months ago to the earlier deadline and compressed schedule.

The Mahoning River project will be finished in January.

The federal court filing also states during the city’s upgrade of its wastewater treatment plant, the first phase of this project, it expanded the peak capacity of treating wastewater per day from the 80 million gallons required to 90 million gallons.

The federal filing states the city will file a motion by Friday with the court to withdraw its amended motion to modify the consent decree, which it submitted March 15, 2024.

In the April 22 status report, the city and the state of Ohio approved the modifications with the federal government asking to have until June 27 — which Boyko granted — to have the DOJ and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency review. It was the third extension requested and granted in the case as the sides say a resolution is imminent.

DEFAULT CLAIM

What remains unresolved, according to the latest court filing, is the federal government’s demand for half of a $1,479,000 penalty from Youngstown to be paid to the U.S. EPA because the city supposedly “defaulted” on following through with federally mandated wastewater improvements on a timely basis. The penalty was first brought up in a Sept. 29, 2023, letter from Segura.

The city has refused to pay. The other half — $739,500 — could be sought by the Ohio EPA, which has declined to seek the penalty and has largely sided with Youngstown during the court proceedings.

The April 22 status report stated the city and the federal government “have exchanged correspondence regarding the United States’ stipulated penalties claim.”

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 in 20 years.

The city tried to get that price down further, but federal authorities refused those requests, resulting in the reopened court case.

The schedule attached to Finn’s Nov. 12 filing has all of the work done by Oct. 1, 2035.

Also, the city insists in court filings and interviews that if Youngstown complied with the mandates now the cost would be about $380 million to $400 million — well over twice what it agreed to do 11 years ago.

The first phase was upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant that have been completed.

The initial construction estimate was $37.3 million, but the city said it cost $70 million.

That work helped reduce the sewer overflows that would be part of the wet weather facility project, the city’s court filing states.

The wet weather facility was supposed to be Phase 2 of the work.

The city approved $4.8 million on March 15, 2024, for design work for what was supposed to be the third phase. That phase is an interceptor sewer project to keep wastewater from 13 lines from flowing into two Mill Creek Park lakes.

Design work was supposed to start July 11, 2020, and construction was to begin April 5, 2024.

The city missed those deadlines, but plans a compressed schedule with that work finished by Oct. 16, 2032. The recent federal government filing stated the completion date is now Sept. 29, 2032.

That phase was estimated to cost $47.7 million and will now cost $72.5 million to $87.2 million, according to city estimates.

The city’s board of control on April 24 hired Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Inc. of Youngstown for $90,000 to serve as “construction manager at risk” for the first two of four phases of an interceptor sewer project.

Marucci & Gaffney also will serve as the contractor on the first two phases with the price to be negotiated, Shasho said.

The first two phases are estimated to cost about $50 million though the city is looking to lower that amount.

The city hired MS Consultants of Youngstown last year for $4.8 million to design the interceptor. That work is finished — which designs about 90% of the project — with Marucci & Gaffney finishing the design and then doing the project.

Construction is expected to start early next year. Shasho said that phase will finish a year ahead of schedule. The federal filing put the completion date as Sept. 7, 2030.