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The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (“PEER”) sent a February 4th Overfile Request (“Request”) to the Region 4 Office of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) requesting action against the Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (“Plant”) that serves the City of Tampa, Florida.

PEER states that it is seeking EPA’s action because of alleged violations of the Plant’s Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permit issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (under its delegated authority pursuant to the Clean Water Act).

The Request asks that EPA, pursuant to its response authority under the Clean Water Act, immediately assert primary jurisdiction over the NPDES permit and, with full public participation, take action to comprehensively assess and mitigate the imminent and substantial threat to public health and environmental harm caused by what are described as numerous violations in connection with the Plant’s wastewater discharges.

The Plant is stated to operate pursuant to an NPDES permit that was issued in 2015. The Plant is located in Hillsborough County, Florida, and classified as a major discharger authorized to discharge an annual average of 96.00 MGD annual average daily flow of effluent into Hillsborough Bay. Hillsborough Bay is a Class III fresh waterbody.

PEER alleges that the Plant has been in noncompliance for 6 of the past 12 quarters and SNC for 2 of the past 12 quarters. Referenced violations include pH and IC25 violations.

PEER argues that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s enforcement response in regards to alleged violations has been inadequate. As a result, it requests that EPA take appropriate action under its concurrent authority to enforce the Clean Water Act in Florida.

A copy of the Request can be found here.