State Settles Water Pollution Control Case Against The Village of Clyman

MADISON - Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen today announced that his office has resolved a civil case it has brought against the Village of Clyman, Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) investigated the matter and then asked the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute the Dodge County Village for various water pollution control violations.  The complaint filed in the case alleged that although the Village had known for some years that its wastewater collection and conveyance system, specifically including an 8,000-foot-long buried force main sewer leading to several treatment lagoons, was badly deteriorated and leaking due to age and neglect, the Village had failed to make all of the repairs necessary for proper operation.  The force main sewer was allegedly prone to breakages which resulted in the sudden discharge of large quantities of untreated sewage onto the surface of private lands and into adjacent wetlands.  The complaint also alleged that the Village's treatment system often exceeded regulatory limits on the strength of pollutants it discharged into an unnamed tributary to Dead Creek, which in turn is a tributary of Lake Sinissippi. 

Under the terms of the settlement agreement which has been approved by Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Brian A. Pfitzinger, the Village of Clyman has agreed: 

• To complete the construction of a new, $3 million wastewater treatment plant, to be served by a new force main sewer, by July 1, 2011;
• To implement a DNR-approved, ten-year program of repairs and improvements to its sewage collection system;
• To impose and enforce a moratorium on new sanitary sewer extensions and connections, to remain in effect until the Village's new wastewater treatment plant becomes operational;
• To properly abandon the Village's existing wastewater treatment lagoons which will not be used after the Village's new wastewater treatment plant becomes operational; and
• To pay penalties, costs and fees totaling $5,000.00.   

"To its credit," Van Hollen said, "during economic conditions that are difficult for all our municipalities, the Village of Clyman has committed to take those steps necessary to fund infrastructure repairs and improvements to eliminate the pollution problems its failing wastewater treatment system had created."  "The Wisconsin Department of Justice will continue to work with DNR to ensure that these law are followed."   

Assistant Attorney General Thomas L. Dosch represented the State.