Baytown is in middle of negotiations with EPA in years-long lawsuit about sewage overflow issue

BAYTOWN, Texas (KTRK) -- Baytown residents may be one step closer to seeing improvements to the city's sewage systems after complaining about bad smells, pollution, and backups for years. During a virtual community meeting Tuesday evening, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided an update on the agency's ongoing lawsuit against the city.

Steph Valdez moved to Baytown in 2020, attracted to the city's diversity, affordability, and proximity to her family. But just two years later, her doctor diagnosed her with Lupus, prompting her to think about where she lives and what's around her.

"I started to have really severe symptoms, such as fatigue, hair loss, and blood spots," Valdez said. "My doctor was like, 'It's an environmental trigger. Like, something in your environment is what triggered this. It's not hereditary. It's not genetic. It's usually caused by pollution and contamination.'"

Valdez expressed that she does not feel comfortable drinking or using water in Baytown, and she shared that she's had brown water come through her faucets. She also does not feel safe being near bodies of water in the city, saying that even light rainstorms can lead to a lingering smell of sewage in the air.

"I could move away if I really wanted to. But it also comes down to why. Why do I have to leave where I'm comfortable and where I've found a community? We should work to make it safe for everybody, so people don't have to look for relocation," Valdez said.

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Concerns like Valdez's are partly what prompted the Bayou City Waterkeeper, a water justice organization, to file a notice of intent to sue the City of Baytown. This ultimately led to the EPA and the State of Texas filing a civil complaint against the city in April 2022.

"We looked at Baytown's data, as well as data from other cities. We noticed that Baytown was reporting a lot more sewage than other cities," Kristen Schlemmer, senior legal director and waterkeeper for Bayou City Waterkeeper, said. "This has been on our radar for at least three years. But based on the data, it looks like the problem stretches back more than a decade."

The EPA's complaint alleges that since April 2017, numerous violations have occurred from Baytown's four wastewater treatment plants and associated sewage collection systems. One includes more than 800 unauthorized discharges of untreated raw sewage from its sewers, known as "sanitary sewer overflows" (SSOs).

The plaintiffs claim that on numerous occasions, Baytown's SSOs went into nearby waters such as Goose Creek, Cary Creek, and Spring Gully, which flow into the Houston Ship Channel. These overflows can contain bacteria and viruses that harm human health, damage property, and degrade the environment.

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The EPA and the State of Texas said that the SSOs, which are self-reported by the city, are caused by structural defects, line breaks, capacity constraints, and other infrastructure deficiencies.

It further alleges that the unlawful discharges of pollutants violate the Clean Water Act, the Texas Water Code, and associated Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.

"Some people have what is called sewage backups, which is a type of sewage overflow that happens in their homes where the sewage is actually coming up out of the toilet, into bathtubs, into sinks when it should be going down," Schlemmer said.

The complaint seeks a civil penalty and injunctive relief to require the city to cease violations and take all steps necessary to comply with the law.

In a statement to ABC13, a spokesperson with the City of Baytown wrote:

"While I can't speak on pending litigation, the City of Baytown is and has been engaged in negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to resolve these issues and improve our sewer system. Since 2002, the City of Baytown has invested more than $220 million to improve its system and continues to be proactive in making additional upgrades."

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The EPA held a virtual community meeting Tuesday night to share the latest in those negotiations. Schlemmer said she hopes to see a resolution by the end of 2025.

However, she noted that once a consent decree comes out, which is essentially a settlement, the public still has the right to review it and give their comments before it can be finalized. The action plan could require another decade to fully implement all of the mandated changes and upgrades.

"There's a lot of very technical things that they have to work out. A lot of this is issues of wastewater engineering and what sites pipes need to be replaced," Schlemmer said.

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