Northport agrees to consent decree, will pay $125G fine for polluting harbor, bay

The Village of Northport has agreed to routinely inspect and repair its storm-sewer system and pay $125,000 in civil penalties after the federal government found the municipal system released “illegal and persistent” pollutants into U.S. waters, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the action is intended to “prevent pollutants, such as raw sewage traveling through Northport’s storm sewers, from discharging into Northport Harbor and Northport Bay.” The harbor and bay feed into the Long Island Sound.

New York State and the Environmental Protection Agency were parties to the action against the village, which filed a formal consent decree to resolve the action.

Village attorney Stuart Besen said Northport “fully cooperated and took all remedial measures” to address the discharges that occurred from 2003 to 2008. Measures included a $12 million upgrade to its sewage treatment plant, he said, adding the village has been in compliance since 2011.

“We are continually upgrading the entire storm-water runoff system,” Besen said. “Everything the EPA requested we’ve complied with for many years.”

At the village board’s Jan. 7 meeting, trustees authorized Mayor Damon McMullen to enter the decree and pay $62,500 to the federal government and $62,500 to the state.

Signing the consent decree “will avoid litigation costs, avoid potential astronomical penalties and is in the best interest of the village of Northport and its residents,” the resolution said. Besen noted the fines could have amounted to $135,000 a day.

EPA regional administrator Richard Lopez said in a news release announcing the consent decree that before the village began to take measures “several years ago” to address the discharges, “storm water from Northport impaired local waterways,” forcing closure of beaches because of contamination in Northport Harbor.

The “EPA takes these violations seriously, and the village has come a long way to protect their valuable natural resources and improve the community’s quality of life,” Lopez said.

The Northport sewer system encompasses catch basins that collect and discharge storm water through connecting pipes to 19 outfalls, which then discharge into the bay and harbor. Inspections by the EPA started in 2011.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.