EPA v. HAVERHILL CITY OF

Case summary

On August 28, 2026 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) collected a stipulated penalty for failing to comply with their 2013 Consent Decree in the amount of $32,500. This penalty will be split evenly between the DOJ and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with each party receiving $16,250. The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has entered a Consent Decree settling an enforcement action against the City of Haverhill, Massachusetts for multiple Clean Water Act violations, including sanitary sewer overflows, combined sewer overflows (CSOs), and stormwater violations. Under the Consent Decree, Haverhill will pay a $125,000 penalty, identify and remove source of illicit discharges from its storm drains, require construction site post-development stormwater controls, implement a sanitary sewer collection system management program, develop and implement a combined sewer control plan, and evaluate the wastewater treatment facility and implement optimization projects and capital improvements. The City will for one year perform continuous electronic monitoring of each of its active CSO outfalls in order to record the date and time when flow from each outfall commences, the date and time when such flows cease, and the total volume released during each activation. After one year, the City will maintain permanent meters on a subset of its outfalls. Also, the City will submit email notification within 24 hours of any CSO discharge to Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, EPA, the Merrimack River Watershed Council, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and Boards of Health agents for downstream communities, advising them of the discharge, and shall continue to issue email notification on successive days unless and until the discharges have ceased. Finally, as a supplemental environmental project, the City will implement a $176,000 riverbank restoration project on the north side of the Merrimack River near Riverside Park within 24 months of the effective date of the Consent Decree

Defendants (1)

• HAVERHILL CITY OFNamed in complaintNamed in settlement

Facilities (2)

• HAVERHILL W P A F

  40 SOUTH PORTER STREET, BRADFORD, MA, 01835

  Registry ID: 110000732752

• HAVERHILL W P A F

  40 SOUTH PORTER STREET, BRADFORD, MA, 01835

  Registry ID: 110000732752

Statutes cited

• CWA 301/402 — NPDES Permit Violations

Enforcement conclusions (2)

• HAVERHILL CITY OFentered 2016-11-10

  Primary law: CWA

  Federal penalty: $62,500 · State/local: $62,500 · SEP: $176,000

• HAVERHILL CITY OF

  Primary law: CWA

  Federal penalty: $16,250

Timeline (5 milestones)

• 2013-07-09Enforcement Action Data Entered
• 2013-09-30Referred To Dept Of Justice
• 2016-08-26Complaint Filed With Court
• 2016-11-10Final Order Entered
• 2026-08-28Final Order Lodged