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City, county to make their case to the
EPA
City and county officials are
scheduled to meet with federal regulators at 1 p.m. Thursday at the EPA's
regional office in
The primary culprit in those spills has been the problem-plagued
Northeast Interceptor, which has dumped millions of gallons of wastewater into
public waters in the past few years.
Wilmington City Manager Sterling
Cheatham said the city wants to make sure EPA officials understand the actions
taken so far to improve its troubled system. Those include capacity upgrades at
the Northside treatment plant, plans to repair the troubled Northeast
Interceptor and efforts to form a special agreement with the state that would
set repair timetables. All told, the city, county and
"What we hope to do is make sure we can convey to them
that we are taking very aggressive actions to retrofit our system," Cheatham
said. "We're hoping they can look at what we're doing and see that we have taken
and are taking the appropriate satisfactory steps to bring our system up to
speed. We are making improvements as fast as we can."
It's also important
the EPA realizes that
If the EPA doesn't buy it, the city could face fines of as much as
$27,500 per violation per day. City officials could potentially face criminal
charges if the violations are determined to be caused intentionally or by gross
negligence.
While both
A variety of local
officials are attending the meeting. The city is sending Attorney Tom Pollard,
Deputy City Manager and Interim Public Utilities Director Mary Ann Hinshaw,
Deputy Public Utilities Director Frank Styers and representatives of consultants
Camp, Dresser & McKee and Kimley Horn.
Attending the meeting from the
county will be Assistant Manager Dave Weaver, Deputy County Attorney Kemp
Burpeau and County Engineer Greg Thompson.
Weaver said the county
officials were there primarily to support the city because the city and county
utility systems are so intertwined.
The city and county also paid $5,000
to hire Craig Bromby, a lawyer with Hunton & Williams in
"Obviously, we've never been at this stage as far as addressing
concerns with the EPA," Pollard said. "We felt like it would be appropriate to
have someone with that expertise in that area to give us advice about the
proceedings."
Laura Niles, an EPA spokeswoman, said the meeting will help
the agency decide if any penalties should be assessed. It's unlikely a decision
will be made Thursday.
The EPA began investigating
In May, the agency cited
State regulators
have also imposed fines and restrictions on
Staff Writer Gareth McGrath contributed to this
report.
Chris Mazzolini:
343-2223
chris.mazzolini@starnewsonline.com