City of Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Outcome
The City of Hattiesburg paid a $165,600 civil penalty and agreed to spend approximately $45 million over 16 years to correct sanitary sewer overflow violations after self-reporting that nearly 900 unreported overflows occurred between 2012 and 2016.
Details
City of Hattiesburg, Mississippi — EPA Clean Water Act Consent Decree (2020)
Outcome: Hattiesburg paid a $165,600 civil penalty split between the federal government and Mississippi, agreed to spend approximately $45 million over 16 years to correct sewer infrastructure, and was required to complete $14.3 million in early action projects by December 2024, resolving Clean Water Act violations stemming from nearly 900 unreported sanitary sewer overflows.
The City of Hattiesburg operates a publicly owned wastewater collection and transmission system (WCTS). From 2012 through 2016, the city failed to properly operate and maintain its wastewater system, resulting in numerous sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) that discharged untreated sewage in violation of the Clean Water Act and the city's NPDES permit. In November 2017, Hattiesburg self-reported to regulators that approximately 900 SSOs had occurred between 2012 and 2016 that had never been reported to state or federal authorities as required.
The DOJ, on behalf of the EPA, and the State of Mississippi lodged a proposed consent decree on August 26, 2020. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Keith Starrett signed the consent decree on January 20, 2021.
The consent decree required Hattiesburg to pay a civil penalty of $165,600, divided equally between the United States and the State of Mississippi, and to complete a Supplemental Environmental Project valued at $220,800 — specifically the reduction of extraneous flows entering the WCTS through defective private laterals and illicit connections from financially distressed residential properties. The city was required to complete Early Action Projects worth approximately $14,293,000 by December 31, 2024. Full compliance with all consent decree requirements is estimated to cost approximately $45 million over a 16-year period.
Primary Source: City of Hattiesburg, MS Clean Water Act Settlement Information Sheet — US EPA Enforcement
How Crucible Prevents This
Hattiesburg's core failure was a multi-year breakdown in mandatory regulatory reporting — nearly 900 sanitary sewer overflows went unreported from 2012 to 2016. Crucible's compliance calendar enforcement, incident logging, and automated regulatory reporting workflows directly address this failure mode. Mandatory overflow reporting triggers, NPDES permit deadline tracking, and escalation controls for unreported events are precisely the kind of systematic enforcement Crucible provides to municipal environmental compliance teams.
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