A Plymouth Wastewater Treatment Plant operator has agreed to pay $1.6 million for allegedly failing to properly maintain and operate the town’s wastewater treatment plant and collection system.
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office announced Tuesday that the company, Veolia, discharged thousands of gallons of contaminated wastewater into Plymouth Harbor and ten million gallons of raw sewage at certain locations in the town, resulting in the closure of shellfish beds.
The consent agreement, entered in Suffolk Superior Court against Veolia and related companies, requires the company to pay the state a $1.35 million civil penalty, and pay $250,000 to a state environmental trust to fund projects to improve the Plymouth Harbor coastal ecosystem.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner, Martin Suuberg, says the announced resolution addresses a significant failure to properly operate and maintain essential infrastructure that required emergency action by the town, MassDEP and other parties to abate the spills and work towards a properly functioning system.