On January 24, 2024, DOJ lodged a material modification to the City of Reading, Pennsylvania CWA Consent Decree, originally entered into in 2005. The City of Reading and Plaintiffs United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania entered into the Consent Decree to resolve claims under the Clean Water Act, the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law, and related to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and other statutes arising from sanitary sewer overflows in the City of Reading?s wastewater treatment plant.
Among other things, the Consent Decree established a process to return the City of Reading to NPDES compliance, including required capital improvements to its wastewater treatment plant and related facilities. The process of new construction and significantly updating and overhauling existing infrastructure has been underway since the Consent Decree was originally entered. Many of the required tasks have been completed or are substantially complete, but some remain outstanding. The Fourth Modification extends the deadlines for completing remaining capital improvement projects because of delays that have occurred in the process of designing, seeking bids for, entering into contracts for, securing materials for, and completing construction on
the remaining projects. In particular, Reading experienced delays due to social distancing-
related limitations on staffing and delays in manufacturing due to shutdowns and supply chain delays, and expects that the