Springfield, TN: In EPA’s Crosshairs

In 2012, the City of Springfield, Tennessee, negotiated an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4. The AOC gave the City and its wastewater utility, Springfield Water and Wastewater Department (SWWD), five years to implement corrective action measures to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), which numbered over 400 in the previous five years. Repairing the 130-mile sanitary sewer system became one of the City’s highest priorities. Construction required to eliminate the overflows would have to be undertaken concurrently with the development and implementation of various plans and programs required by the AOC including the System Evaluation and Rehabilitation Plan; the Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance Program; and the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Response Plan in order to meet the schedule. The first two of these plans/programs involved multiple documents. Gresham, Smith and Partners (GS&P) was retained by the City to help develop this multitude of plans and programs as well as design and manage the projects to be constructed within the schedule and mandated confines of the AOC. The steps to fulfill the AOC requirements from the first documents through implementation are presented.