The Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office have filed a civil complaint against Daphne Utilities in Baldwin County Circuit Court, accusing the public utility of errors in how it reported sewer system overflows.
The complaint, filed Nov. 16, alleges that Daphne Utilities failed to accurately document and report sanitary sewer spills as required under state environmental law. The legal action comes after months of scrutiny over the utility’s wastewater reporting practices and follows a separate threat of litigation from the environmental advocacy group Mobile Baykeeper, which in September accused Daphne Utilities of failing to disclose a number of sewer spills to the public and to regulators.
Under Alabama law, a lawsuit filed by the state’s environmental enforcement agency generally takes precedence over and can preclude a related citizen suit brought by an outside environmental group over the same violations, which effectively puts ADEM and the attorney general’s office in the lead role on addressing the utility’s reporting problems going forward.
In a statement responding to the filing, Daphne Utilities said that once it was notified of the pending action, its management team reached out to ADEM to signal its willingness to cooperate with the agency overseeing its operations. The utility said its board of directors ordered an independent investigation into the allegations as soon as they surfaced from the environmental group, and that the board wanted to demonstrate its commitment to working with ADEM to resolve the matter.
Daphne Utilities said it and its board remain committed to correcting any problems that are identified once the independent investigation is finished.
The utility, which is funded by the rates paid by its customers, said that as a government body it intends to keep working to comply with state and federal environmental regulations and to cooperate with regulatory agencies on fixing any shortcomings in its operations.
Officials with the utility also pointed to a series of operational changes made in the months leading up to the lawsuit that were designed to reduce the chances of future sewer spills and to improve the accuracy of the utility’s reporting. Those changes include moving to 24-hour staffing at the utility’s wastewater treatment plant, installing upgraded monitoring and alarm systems to detect problems more quickly, and additional training for plant operators.
Sanitary sewer overflows, which occur when untreated or partially treated wastewater escapes a sewer system before reaching a treatment plant, can pose risks to public health and to nearby waterways, including the creeks and bayous that feed into Mobile Bay. State environmental regulations require utilities to promptly report such overflows so that the public and regulators can respond to any contamination risk.
Because the case remains in active litigation and the utility’s internal investigation is still underway, Daphne Utilities said it would hold off on further public comment until both the investigation and the legal proceedings are resolved to the satisfaction of ADEM and the utility.
The case is pending in Baldwin County Circuit Court. This story will be updated as additional information becomes available.