Augusta leaders quietly approved a consent order with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division requiring the city pay more than $170,000 in penalties and undertake corrective measures to address problems at its main wastewater treatment facility.
The order follows several years of sewage spills, bypasses and wastewater violations at JB Messerly Water Pollution Control Plant. The Augusta Commission approved the order and some 17 other unrelated motions after a closed-door meeting July 29.
Under the agreement, Augusta will pay $170,544 in civil penalties and must submit detailed plans to correct deficiencies at Messerly, improve spill reporting and prevent future bypasses. The city must file quarterly reports with EPD until the corrective actions are complete.
The order came from a joint inspection conducted by the U.S. EPA and Georgia EPD in July 2024 that found significant deficiencies at Messerly, which operates under a contract with Inframark-ESG.
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In an August 2024 letter, EPA emailed city officials a report of findings from the July inspection, the order states. The findings included plant growth in basins, numerous non-operational equipment and structural damage to the plant’s sludge digesters.
Inspectors also observed a bypass pump diverting wastewater directly into constructed wetlands, skipping treatment at clarifiers and aeration basins.
The city later admitted the bypass system had been triggered 156 times between 2019 and 2024, including 81 bypass events from 2021 to 2024. None of the bypass events were reported to regulators as required under Augusta’s discharge permit.
From February 2021 through September 2024, Augusta documented 179 sewage spills into state waters. Of those 84 were not reported to EPD within the required 24 hours, nor were followup reports submitted. In December 2021, required sampling was not conducted on a major spill. The plant recorded 20 effluent limit violations during the same period.
The consent order sets a series of deadlines for correcting the problems. Within 30 days the city must submit a plan to correct deficiencies including repairs to clarifiers, digesters and grit removal systems.
Within 60 days, Augusta is required to provide a standard operating procedure for reporting spills and bypasses, an updated operations and maintenance plan and revised corrective action plans. Within 120 days it must file a long-range plan to eliminate bypass events within three years.
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The order requires the city to admit no liability, but it could face further penalties for failure to comply with the terms.
When news of the proposed order surfaced in March, it caused some on the commission to question a pending five-year extension with Inframark-ESG, which now includes additional contract services such as painting water tanks. Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice suggested renewing for a year to explore other management options.
Utilities Director Wes Byne took issue with several of the proposed order’s findings and attributed the reporting deficiencies to an employee who had died and EPD changing its contact for spill reporting.
Byne said the facilities serve a large area that includes Fort Gordon and parts of Columbia County and continue to expand to take on new industries’ wastewater.
Macon-based ESG has held the Augusta management contract since 2009 and merged with Inframark in 2021.
Augusta wastewater treatment consent order by Susan McCord
