The city of Florence's repeated release of sewage into the Siuslaw River has prompted an environmental group to file a federal lawsuit despite the city's efforts to reduce the problem.
The Oregon Shored Conservation Coalition filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Eugene. It contends the city is violated the federal Clean Water Act by allowing partially treated sewage from its treatment plant.
The lawsuit, which the group threatened to file in June, seeks and end to new sewer hookups until the treatment problem is solved.
Additionally, the lawsuit seeks a court order forbidding any discharge of pollutants that exceed limits set in a discharge permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The lawsuit, filed by the Western Environmental Law Center, also seeks fines for all known discharge violations. The lawsuit documents dozens of such violations dating back to March 1995.
Florence City Manager Ken Hobson said work is on schedule to build a new treatment plant. It is expected to cost between $12 million and $17 million and be operational by 2000.
He noted that most of the city's discharge problems occur from rainwater infiltration through leaky lines in the old part of town. A project is set to begin Monday to replace sewer mains in a seven-block area of the downtown that is home to the worst sections of old pipe.
Hobson said the city became aware of the problem in December 1995 and had a repair plan under way by the following spring.
"It takes years to get through the mandated planning, design and construction," he said.
Still, the environmental group contends it is unacceptable to continue dumping raw sewage into waters used by fish and wildlife, and by humans for recreation, coalition lawyer Doug Quirk said.
He said the city's treatment plant expansion plan is good for the long term, but inadequate for the present.
"The problem we see is they have problems now that are caused by the number of hookups to the system. They want to continue adding users to the system," Quirk said.
He said city and coalition representatives have attempted to negotiate a settlement to avoid litigation. However, Quirk declined to discuss details of the discussions.