State levies fine against city of Watertown for discharges into wetlands

Aug. 27—WATERTOWN — The state Department of Environmental Conservation has levied a $22,700 penalty against the city for discharging untreated wastewater into Beaver Meadows, a large wetlands west of the city.

The penalty was part of a DEC Order on Consent issued in July after the city discharged approximately 1,311,000 gallons by pumping untreated sewage wastewater from a manhole to a drainage swale.

The discharge — which was mainly rainwater — happened for decades when the city alleviated residential flooding in the Butterfield Avenue area during periods of heavy, extended rains and rapid snow melts.

It has to do with overcapacity of the western outflow trunk system on the city's south and southwest side.

The overcapacity is caused by infiltration of groundwater that seeps into sewer pipes through holes, cracks, joint failures and faulty connections, while inflow is stormwater that quickly flows into sewers from a variety of sources, including leaks in manhole covers.

The DEC also issued three violations: a manhole on Butterfield is not a permitted discharge point; failure to properly report and give notification of an unpermitted discharge of untreated sewage; and discharging wastewater into a wetland without a permit.

The city will take five steps as the result of the order of consent that the City Council approved on Monday night.

"We have to do everything in the order consent," City Manager Kenneth A. Mix, adding "the city has taken other steps over the years" to correct the issue.

Public Works Superintendent Patrick Keenan said the city can no longer take measures to prevent residential basements from flooding. He recommends property owners install "back flow" devices in their basements.

According to the consent order, the city also agreed to put together a schedule of short- and long-term plan items, submit quarterly reports and put a plan in place to account for removal of infiltration/inflow equal to 3 times the anticipated flow from any new sanitary connections.

The city will work with the town of Watertown on that municipality's infiltration issue, Mix said.

In hopes of preventing the discharge into the wetlands, the city recently completed a $200,000 project to replace 63 manholes throughout the outflow truck system.

On Monday night, Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith warned that fixing the issue will be expensive. Residents on that side of the city can expect their basements to be flooded in the future, he said.

"This is going to be a long-term issue and problem," he said.

However, Mix is more optimistic about the situation, saying "it's not necessarily so" because of several ways the city has tried to correct the issue over the years,

The discharge has occurred a handful of times in the past two years.

In 2019, the city also obtained a state grant to pay GHD Engineering, Syracuse, $75,000 to complete a study and come up with recommendations to resolve the issue. The engineering firm recommended replacing the 63 manholes.