Judge Lifts Order After Duluth Stops Sewage Overflows
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Federal officials and Duluth's mayor say the city has met its obligation to end overflows of sewage into Lake Superior.
A federal judge has lifted a 2009 consent decree that required Duluth and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District to stop sewage overflows by 2016. The last overflow happened during flooding in 2012.
Between 1999 and 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says 47 million gallons of sewage went from Duluth into the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. Mayor Don Ness said Wednesday that Duluth was failing its most important responsibility of protecting Lake Superior, and that overflows would happen whenever it rained.
Ness says the city and the sanitary district have worked to repair sewage lines, add sump pumps in many homes and build storage basins to hold excess sewage.
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