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Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority Settlement

WASHINGTON - The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) entered into an agreement to plead guilty to an indictment charging 15 felony counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) through the illegal discharge of pollutants from nine sanitary wastewater treatment plants and five drinking water treatment plants, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. Under the plea agreement, PRASA will pay a criminal fine of $9 million-the largest fine ever paid by a utility for violating the CWA. In addition, a comprehensive civil settlement was reached between PRASA and the United States of America resolving repeated environmental violations at 61 wastewater treatment plants throughout the Commonwealth.

In the civil settlement, PRASA will spend an estimated $1.7 billion implementing capital improvement projects (CIPs) and other remedial measures at all of its 61 wastewater treatment plants and related collection systems over the next 15 years. To comply with the settlement, PRASA will complete 145 short-, mid-, and long-term CIPs, which will include installing dechlorination equipment, installing flow proportional chlorination equipment, repairing and replacing equipment, and implementing a chemical treatment program for phosphorous removal, among other things.

For more information, contact:

Elyse DiBiagio-Wood
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Civil Enforcement
Water Enforcement Division
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Office: 202-564-8187
dibiagio-wood.elyse@epa.gov

 

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