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U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
Ensuring clean and safe water
Atlanta Is Largely in
Compliance with Its
Combined Sewer Overflow
Consent Decree, but Has
Not Yet Met All
Requirements
Report No. 18-P-0206
May 30, 2018

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Report Contributors:	Kathlene Butler
Julie Hamann
Tim Roach
Johnny Ross
Abbreviations
CWA	Clean Water Act
CSO	Combined Sewer Overflow
EPA	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Georgia EPD	Georgia Environmental Protection Division
NPDES	National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
OIG	Office of Inspector General
SSO	Sanitary Sewer Overflow
Cover photo:	Atlanta's R.M. Clayton Pump Station was built as a result of the city's
Combined Sewer Overflow consent decree. (EPA OIG photo)
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	18-P-0206
f ¦¦ \ Office of Inspector General	May 30,2018
At a Glance
Why We Did This Project
The Office of Inspector
General (OIG) for the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) performed
this audit based on a
congressional request to
examine the city of Atlanta's
compliance with requirements
of the 1998 Combined Sewer
Overflow (CSO) consent
decree, and EPA Region 4's
oversight of the city's consent
decree compliance.
CSOs occur when untreated
or partially treated human
and industrial waste, toxic
materials, and debris mix
with stormwater and flow
into surface waterbodies. The
consent decree also addressed
Sanitary Sewer Overflows
(SSOs), which occur when
sewage escapes sewer
systems and flows into streets
and surface waterbodies.
The consent decree directed
Atlanta to develop and
implement maintenance
programs, construct
wastewater treatment
infrastructure, and report
progress to the EPA and the
state of Georgia.
This report addresses the
following:
• Ensuring clean and safe
water.
Atlanta Is Largely in Compliance with Its
Combined Sewer Overflow Consent Decree,
but Has Not Yet Met All Requirements
Decreases in sewage
overflows from Atlanta's
wastewater treatment
facilities and sewage
transmission pipes reduce
the risk of city residents
being exposed to pathogens.
What We Found
Atlanta, Georgia, completed its CSO capital
improvement projects by 2008 and complies
with current reporting requirements, but the
city has not yet achieved all consent decree
requirements. Atlanta continues to work on
sewer system construction projects under a
1999 amendment that deals primarily with
Atlanta's sewer collection system, including the
separate portion of the sewer system. The city
has until 2027 to complete those projects.
Atlanta's CSO system continues to experience periodic violations of its National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits due to high levels of fecal
coliform, operations-related errors leading to high levels of chlorine in treated
wastewaters, and missed water quality tests. SSOs continue to occur and pose
risks to human health and the environment. Untreated household and human
waste continues to be released into city streets and surface waters during SSO
events.
EPA Region 4 coordinates with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division
(Georgia EPD) to implement the document review and inspection oversight
controls established in the consent decree. The consent decree requires Atlanta
to submit quarterly reports to EPA Region 4 and the Georgia EPD, which the city
is providing. In addition, Region 4 chairs quarterly meetings to discuss the
implementation of the consent decree with the city and the Georgia EPD. The
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, a co-plaintiff in the case and party to the settlement,
can also attend these meetings.
Based on the results of our analysis, we have no recommendations.
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oia.
Listing of OIG reports.

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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
May 30, 2018
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Atlanta Is Largely in Compliance with Its Combined Sewer Overflow Consent Decree,
but Has Not Yet Met All Requirements
Report No. 18-P-0206
This is our report on the subject audit conducted by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The project number for this audit was OPE-FY17-0014.
This report represents the opinion of the OIG and does not necessarily represent the final EPA position.
You are not required to respond to this report because this report contains no recommendations.
However, if you submit a response, it will be posted on the OIG's website, along with our memorandum
commenting on your response. Your response should be provided as an Adobe PDF file that complies
with the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. The
final response should not contain data that you do not want to be released to the public; if your response
contains such data, you should identify the data for redaction or removal along with corresponding
justification.
FROM: Arthur A. Elkins Jr.
TO:
Trey Glenn, Regional Administrator
Region 4
We will post this report to our website at www.epa.gov/oig.

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Atlanta Is Largely in Compliance with Its
Combined Sewer Overflow Consent Decree,
but Has Not Yet Met All Requirements
18-P-0206
Table of C
Purpose	 1
Background	 1
Responsible Office	 4
Scope and Methodology		4
Results	 5
Atlanta Is Complying with Consent Decree Requirements
for Construction and Reporting, but SSO and NPDES
Issues Remain	 5
EPA Region 4 Implements the Document Review and Inspection
Oversight Controls in the Consent Decree		7
Conclusion 	 8
Agency Response and OIG Evaluation		9
Appendix
A Distribution	 10

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Purpose
In February 2017, a member of Congress requested that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA's) Office of Inspector General (OIG) review Atlanta's
compliance with the city's Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) consent decree, and
EPA Region 4's oversight of Atlanta's consent decree compliance. We initiated
this audit to determine whether Atlanta is complying with the 1998 CSO consent
decree requirements, and to evaluate EPA Region 4's internal controls for
overseeing compliance with the consent decree.
Background
Raw sewage overflows and inadequately controlled stormwater discharges from
municipal sewer systems cause sewage backups into homes and introduce a
variety of harmful pollutants into U.S. waterways, including disease causing
organisms, metals and nutrients. These pollutants threaten communities' water
quality and can contribute to disease outbreaks, beach and shellfish bed closings,
flooding, and fishing advisories.
In 1994, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that the impacts from
sewage overflows to Atlanta's public parks and rivers impeded the city's ability to
improve water quality. The rainwater from heavy storms overwhelmed the
sanitation system and washed raw sewage into city parks, such as the city's
Piedmont Park. According to the article, tests that researchers conducted for
diversity of fish and insect species at Peachtree Creek, where much of Atlanta's
sewage outflows were occurring, proved "very disappointing"; and at Utoy Creek,
"only a few fish were found, and those had lesions or ulcers."1
Controlling Sewage Before It Reaches Surface Water
In many major municipalities like Atlanta, sewage primarily reaches surface
water in two ways:
•	Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). During dry weather, the flow in
combined sewers consists only of sewage, which is directed to a
wastewater treatment facility. However, during periods of high
precipitation, the increased volume in a combined sewer results in a
portion of the combined flow of stormwater runoff and sewage being
discharged directly to surface waters (e.g., oceans, rivers, creeks, bays and
streams).
•	Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs). When sewer blockages from debris
or water infiltration from other connections to separate sanitary sewers
prevent sewage from freely flowing to wastewater treatment facilities,
1 "Troubled Waters: The Strangling of the Chattahoochee," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, June 24, 1994.
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sewage can overflow from pipes into surrounding areas. Rain-induced
overflows occur when sewer systems are overcome by large volumes of
rainwater, but dry weather events may occur when blockages in the system
cause sewage to overflow.
Both CSO and SSO events pollute waterways and increase the risk of human and
other animal exposure to pathogens. Further, both CSO and SSO discharges of
untreated sewage can cause a violation of a state's water quality standards and
impact designated uses, like fishing and swimming, in affected waters.
The EPA authorizes most states, including Georgia, to issue permits to control
sewage under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
The NPDES permits for wastewater and stormwater treatment facilities establish
limits for how much pollution these facilities may discharge to surface waters
based on water quality standards established by the state. For example, Atlanta's
NPDES permits limit the amount of metals and fecal coliform the city's facilities
may release into surface water bodies based on Georgia's water quality standards.
If a facility does not comply with its NPDES permit, state or federal regulators
can take enforcement action to bring the facility back into compliance. This may
involve one or more of the following: a settlement agreement leading to a consent
decree, civil penalties (fines), requiring the facility to take actions that will bring
it into compliance with environmental laws, or having the facility perform
supplemental environmental projects or mitigation projects.
Atlanta Consent Decree Was Designed to Reduce Water Pollution
from Sewer Overflows and Improve NPDES Compliance
In 1995, citizen plaintiffs filed a
complaint alleging that the city of
Atlanta violated NPDES permits at
several of its CSO treatment facilities.
In 1997, the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of Georgia entered a
summary judgment against the city and
in favor of the citizen plaintiffs on the
issue of liability. The District Court
ruled that Atlanta violated the terms
of its NPDES permits for the CSO
treatment facilities. The judge held that
the city violated several NPDES permit
conditions, including failing to meet
water quality standards for water in culverts
and fecal coliform bacteria levels in receiving streams.
The United States and the state of Georgia also alleged that Atlanta violated its
permits at several treatment facilities, and the federal and state governments filed
Altanta Department ofWatershed
Management's West-Area Tunnel Shaft
(EPAOIG photo)
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suit against the city in 1998. Later that year, the United States, the state of
Georgia, and citizen plaintiffs entered into a consent decree with Atlanta, which
required the city to improve the following:
•	Full compliance with NPDES permits for CSO control facilities, the
Georgia Water Quality Control Act, and the Clean Water Act.
•	The elimination of all unpermitted discharges from Atlanta's combined
sewer system.
The consent decree levied $2.5 million in civil penalties against Atlanta. The
decree also required the city to improve its operations and maintenance activities,
and make multimillion dollar improvements to its CSO facilities.
CSO discharges of untreated or partially treated sewage can impair a state's water
quality and impact fishing and swimming in affected waters. The City of Atlanta
CSO Remedial Measures Plan, published in 2002, indicated the combined sewer
control facilities recorded CSO events about 50 to 70 times per year. Among the
requirements in the consent decree: Atlanta agreed to reduce the number of CSO
overflows to no more than four per year.
In 1999, the EPA and the state of Georgia entered into a First Amended Consent
Decree, wherein Atlanta was required, among other things, to make
improvements to its four wastewater treatment facilities and its wastewater
collection and transmission systems to reduce SSO events. The objective of the
consent decree and its amendments directed Atlanta to do the following:
•	Achieve full compliance with the CWA, the Georgia Water Quality
Control Act, and all NPDES permits.
•	Eliminate all unpermitted discharges.
•	Eliminate all SSOs.
Since 1999, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia2 has
approved two additional amendments to the consent decree (Figure 1). A 2003
amendment allowed Atlanta to change some of its sewer system capital
improvement projects, and a 2012 amendment granted the city an extension until
2027 to complete all construction projects for its sewage collection and
transmission system.
2 U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.
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Figure 1: Consent decree timeline
Consent
2004 Completion
of remedial
actions for CSO
facilities
2012 Second
Amendment to First
Amended Consent
Decree
1998
2000 > 2005 > 2010 > 2015 > 2027
1999 First
Amended
Consent
Decree
2003 Amendment to
First Amended
Consent Decree
2008 CSO
construction
projects
completed
2027 Consent
Decree
components
scheduled to be
completed
Source: OIG summary of consent decree milestones and information provided by the city of Atlanta.
The 1998 consent decree requires Atlanta to submit quarterly progress reports to
the EPA and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (Georgia EPD). The
reports allow federal and state agencies to monitor the implementation of consent
decree requirements, and the agencies are notified of any problems, including
NPDES permit violations. Region 4 and Georgia EPD staff also hold quarterly
meetings with staff from the city to discuss consent decree implementation,
although these meetings are not required under the consent decree.
Responsible Office
The responsible office for this report is EPA Region 4. The Water Protection
Division within Region 4 oversees the consent decree.
Scope and Methodology
We conducted our work from April 2017 to February 2018. We conducted this
performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained
provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit
objectives.
We reviewed the 1998 consent decree and its amendments, as well as documents
that identify internal control principles for effectively operating government
programs. We collected and analyzed city planning documents and quarterly
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progress reports. We interviewed staff and managers from EPA Region 4's Water
Protection Division, the Georgia EPD's Watershed Compliance Branch, the
Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, and the Chattahoochee
Riverkeeper. We used the U.S. Government Accountability Office's Standards
for Internal Control in the Federal Government to evaluate EPA Region 4's
oversight of Atlanta's consent decree compliance.
Results
Atlanta Is Complying with Consent Decree Requirements for
Construction and Reporting, but SSO and NPDES Issues Remain
As of 2017, Atlanta was in compliance with major consent decree requirements
for construction and reporting, but SSO and NPDES permit compliance issues
remained. Continued noncompliance and SSO events lead to contaminated
surface water and an increased risk that waterborne pathogens will affect
recreational users of water. Based on the current agreement, Atlanta will continue
implementing the consent decree until 2027.
Atlanta Completed CSO Construction, Meets CSO Target and Submits
Required Reports
In 2008, Atlanta completed capital improvement projects approved by the
Georgia EPD and EPA Region 4 pertaining to the CSO system. After
completing construction and operational modifications, the city reported very
few CSO events. Prior to the construction and modifications, the City of
Atlanta CSO Remedial Measures Plan indicated the control facilities recorded
overflows 50 to 70 time per year. For the period of 2009 through 2017, the
city recorded a total of 10 CSO events, with no more than four in any one
year. This achieves the target noted in the consent decree.
The city also completes and makes publicly available quarterly reports that
describe ongoing maintenance and operation activities, NPDES permit
violations, CSO events, and plans for future work. These reports help EPA
Region 4 staff and the Georgia EPD to monitor progress toward achieving the
clean water compliance requirements of the consent decree.
SSO Events Continue
The 1999 First Amended Consent Decree required significant construction
improvements to wastewater treatment facilities and pipes throughout the
sanitary sewer system, with a goal of eliminating all SSOs. The city
completed all remedial actions for its four wastewater treatment facilities, and
the District Court terminated that portion of the consent decree in 2004.
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In 2012, Atlanta reported to the District Court that the city had reduced the
volume of sewage overflows by 95 percent since 2004. The court also granted
the city's request to extend the construction period to 2027. The court cited,
among other reasons, the environmental results from work performed and the
costs of future work, which would be funded by a 252-percent increase in
water and sewer rates and a 1 percent municipal sales tax.
The city of Atlanta's progress reports from 2013 through 2017 indicate that
SSOs continue to occur during wet weather and dry weather, sending between
1.3 and 9.5 million gallons of sewage per year from sewage pipes into
communities and local waterways (Table 1). Since the approval of the 2012
amendment extending the construction period for sanitary sewer systems,
reports show that Atlanta has not made sustained progress toward reducing the
number of SSOs.
Table 1: Reported sanitary sewer overflows

2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Rain induced
6
9
31
10
13
Dry weather
202
239
264
262
266
Millions of gallons
3.6
9.5
4.9
1.3
2.0
Source: OIG analysis of data from Atlanta's Watershed Department.
The city may not succeed in eliminating all future events until all construction
projects are completed in 2027, which is the court-approved completion year.
At the end of 2017, Atlanta reported that it completed 72 percent of its sewer
system construction projects and finished two of its six sewershed
construction projects. The city has spent 56 percent of its projected
construction funds ($1.07 billion of the estimated $1.90 billion) for its sewer
system construction projects. According to the city, construction in the four
remaining sewersheds will be completed in 2020, 2025, 2026 and 2027.
In the meantime, SSOs continue and accounted for an average of 14 rain-
induced overflows and 242 dry-weather overflows between 2013 and
2016—the years for which complete data are available. Until the city
achieves the consent decree's objective to eliminate all SSOs, these
overflows pose risks to human health and the environment.
NPDES Permit Violations Continue
Atlanta also has not yet achieved the consent decree objective of complying
with its NPDES permits. Noncompliance can degrade water quality and
increase the risk that waterborne pathogens will affect recreational users of
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water. From 2001 through 2017, NPDES violations have generally averaged
eight per year, with significant increases occurring in 2001, 2006 and 2015
(Figure 2).
Figure 2: Number of NPDES permit violations
25
	Failure to sample/follow Management, Operations, and Maintenance Plans
Total chlorine residual exceedance
	Fecal coliform exceedance
Source: OIG analysis of data from Atlanta's Watershed Department. Data were not reported prior to 2001.
Between 2013 and 2017, Atlanta reported 29 fecal coliform exceedances. In
most cases, the exceedances were 15 to 30 times above NPDES permit limits.
Untreated or partially treated discharges from combined sewer facilities led to
high levels of fecal coliform where the water samples were collected. Over the
4-year period, operations-related violations of the NPDES permit occurred,
including 11 failure-to-sample violations, or violations of management,
operation and maintenance programs, and six chlorine residual exceedances.
Under the consent decree, Atlanta must pay stipulated penalties when NPDES
permit violations occur, and report those violations in quarterly reports. Our
analysis indicates the city reported payments of stipulated penalties for
NPDES permit violations.
EPA Region 4 Implements the Document Review and Inspection
Oversight Controls in the Consent Decree
EPA Region 4 implements the oversight controls established in the consent decree
and coordinates with the Georgia EPD to track Atlanta's compliance with consent
decree requirements. EPA Region 4 and the Georgia EPD use their collective
authority to monitor implementation of the consent decree:
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•	The city is required to submit all planning documents and progress
reports to EPA Region 4 and the Georgia EPD. Both federal and state
governments review these documents.
•	Quarterly reporting on progress and consent decree violations, such
as NPDES permit violations, SSO events and CSO events are
required. The city submits these reports to EPA Region 4 and the Georgia
EPD, and certifies the information contained in the quarterly reports is
true, accurate and complete.
•	The EPA and the state are allowed to enter facilities at any time to
conduct inspections as needed. This allows staff to verify data or
information submitted to EPA Region 4 or the Georgia EPD, obtain
water samples from the utility, review records that are required to be
kept per consent decree terms, and conduct inspections. Both EPA
Region 4 and the Georgia EPD have conducted reviews of Atlanta's
facilities. According to a staff member monitoring the consent decree,
EPA Region 4 and the state's site reviews of facilities involved evaluating
compliance with consent decree provisions, or permit provisions, which
are incorporated into the consent decree.
EPA Region 4's oversight activities have changed over time. During early
implementation of the consent decree, regional staff reviewed and approved
wastewater infrastructure construction plans, remedial action plans, and
operations and maintenance program plans. Region 4 now oversees consent
decree compliance by reviewing quarterly reports and conducting quarterly
meetings with city staff, the Georgia EPD, and the Chattahoochee
Riverkeeper—a co-plaintiff in the case and party to the settlement.
EPA Region 4's quarterly meetings with Atlanta and the Georgia EPD
are not required by the consent decree, but these meetings provide
additional opportunities to monitor the implementation of the consent decree.
Conclusion
Full implementation of Atlanta's consent decree could lead to substantial
improvements in surface water quality in the Chattahoochee and South rivers.
The city has until 2027 to complete its sanitary sewer construction projects.
To date, reports show that Atlanta's compliance with the consent decree resulted
in fewer reported CSOs and improved water quality. However, SSOs and NPDES
permit violations continue to occur. Atlanta has not yet achieved the consent
decree goals to fully comply with its NPDES permits and to eliminate all SSOs.
The controls that Region 4 uses to oversee the Atlanta consent decree and its
amendments provide regional staff with information about the city's progress,
opportunities to raise concerns, and tools for intervening if the state and city do
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not have adequate responses to questions. Based on the results of our analysis, we
have no recommendations.
Agency Response and OIG Evaluation
Region 4 provided an email response to our draft report. Region 4 concurred with
the report's findings and offered technical comments. We made revisions to the
report based on those comments.
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Distribution
The Administrator
Chief of Staff
Chief of Operations
Deputy Chief of Operations
Regional Administrator, Region 4
Agency Follow-Up Official (the CFO)
Agency Follow-Up Coordinator
General Counsel
Associate Administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations
Associate Administrator for Public Affairs
Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 4
Audit Follow-Up Coordinator, Office of the Administrator
Audit Follow-Up Coordinator, Region 4
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