Agriculture your username December 24, 2020 The city of Peoria, Illinois and its sanitary district have agreed to make sweeping changes to their sewage and wastewater treatment system to address untreated human waste discharges into the Illinois River and Peoria Lake, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yesterday. The proposed consent decree was reached by the city with the state, the EPA, and the Department of Justice after the plaintiffs filed a complaint against the city seeking injunctive relief and the assessment of civil penalties. The case arose from Clean Water Act (CWA) violations relating to combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit exceedances. The EPA explained that the illegal discharges resulted from the city’s ill-equipped sanitary system that was unable to handle increased water volumes from heavy rain and snow events. In turn, untreated human waste mixed with stormwater and was discharged into the Illinois River and Peoria Lake, resulting in high concentrations of bacteria, sediment, and other pollutants.