City of Salem, West Virginia to pay US$25,000 fine for Clean Water Act violations at wastewater plant; EPA cites excessive pollutant discharge into Salem Fork, tributary of Monongahela River

(Nov 18, 2024) – The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it has entered into a Consent Agreement and Final Order with the City of Salem, West Virginia for Clean Water Act (CWA) violations at its wastewater treatment plant. The City of Salem was cited for several CWA violations for failing to, among other things, comply with the effluent limits contained in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and discharging more pollutants than permissible into Salem Fork, a tributary of the Monongahela River. The City of Salem has agreed to pay a $25,000 fine in settlement of its CWA violations.

This civil penalty action follows an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) that was filed earlier this year in April 2024. In addition to paying the civil penalty, the City of Salem has agreed pursuant to the AOC to develop and implement an updated Operations and Maintenance Manual, conduct an engineering evaluation of the wastewater treatment plant, develop and implement a corrective action plan to improve the operations at its wastewater treatment plant and correct all effluent exceedances.  EPA pursued these actions due to the fact that continued violations without corrective action posed the potential for harm to aquatic life with excessive discharges of pollutants including fecal bacteria, suspended solids, ammonia nitrogen, and copper.

The CWA regulates certain discharges of pollutants from point sources, including wastewater treatment plants, through NPDES permits.  These permits contain limits on what parameters can be discharged by the facility and at what acceptable levels to ensure water quality.