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The Environmental Defense Alliance (EDA) and Choctawhatchee River Keeper Inc. (CRK) have filed a Notice of Intent to sue (NOIS) against the City of Brundidge for violation of its wastewater treatment system permit and for Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs), which are illegal discharges.

According to a Press Release from Choctawhatchee RIVERKEEPER Inc., in the recent past, the Brundidge wastewater treatment system has had 1,430 permit violation days and 20 SSOs. Little improvement has been seen toward improving these violations and, to date, there has been no effective action by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

Filing of a Notice of Intent to Sue (NOIS) is the first step in remedies that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act (CWA), created for citizens and citizen organizations to employ when pollutions violations occur and responsible governmental agencies do not take action to bring a polluting facility back into compliance ending the pollution.

The process gives violators 60 days in which to end the pollution or the state regulatory authority, in this case ADEM and USEPA, 60 days in which to file suit against the violator. If such action does not take place, Environmental Defense Alliance (EDA) and Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper (CRK) may file a citizen suit.

Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper, Inc. is a non-profit member organization of the Waterkeeper Alliance.  CRK’s mission is to protect and restore the ecological health of the Choctawhatchee River, its tributaries and the surrounding terrestrial systems that constitute the watership.

CRK works with Waterkeepers Alabama, statewide organizations and organizations like EDA to work to protect and improve water quality in order to assure that “our” water remains drinkable, fishable and swimmable or returned to that condition where they are not.