District agreed to pay $3,750,000 civil penalty and invest approximately $61.5 million in infrastructure improvements including a 4x pumping capacity increase, preventing approximately 10.98 million gallons of SSO discharge annually into the Little Calumet River.

Sanitary District of Highland, Indiana — Sanitary Sewer Overflows (2022)

Outcome: District agreed to pay $3,750,000 civil penalty and invest approximately $61.5 million in infrastructure improvements, including a quadrupling of pumping capacity, to prevent approximately 10.98 million gallons of annual SSO discharge into the Little Calumet River.

The Sanitary District of Highland, Indiana, a wastewater collection utility serving the northwestern Indiana community of Highland in Lake County, operated a collection system that repeatedly discharged untreated sanitary sewage into the Little Calumet River and its tributaries through sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). Each discharge violated Clean Water Act Section 301(a). The violations were documented over approximately a decade, with the collection system's pumping infrastructure inadequate to handle wet-weather flow volumes, causing sewage to back up and overflow from the collection system.

The consent decree, lodged in April 2022 and entered December 2022, required the district to pay a $3,750,000 civil penalty and implement approximately $61.5 million in capital improvements, plus an additional $21.7 million in related costs. The core infrastructure investment is a major upgrade to pumping capacity — more than a fourfold increase — to handle peak wet-weather flows without overflowing. The settlement also addressed the Town of Griffith, Indiana, which was jointly covered. Expected annual pollutant load reduction is approximately 10.98 million gallons of SSO volume prevented from entering the Little Calumet River.

The Little Calumet River flows through one of the most industrially impacted watersheds in the Great Lakes region, adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Lake Michigan. EPA's enforcement in the Calumet region reflects heightened Great Lakes protection priorities. The $3.75 million penalty — among the higher civil penalties in this class of cases — reflects the long duration of the violation period and the district's delayed response to documented system deficiencies.

Primary Source: Sanitary District of Highland, Indiana Clean Water Act Settlement Information Sheet | US EPA