YOUNGSTOWN – The federal government and Youngstown “believe that they have reached an agreement in principle” over a wastewater improvement dispute with a judge giving them until Feb. 26, 2025, to file a status report on the negotiated settlement.

The city filed an amended motion Nov. 12 to a 2014 consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As part of that decree, the city agreed to build a 100-million-gallon-per-day wet weather facility — a physical building that would be located near its wastewater treatment plant. The facility would treat excess combined sewage during heavy rainstorms and then release the water.

The city now insists the facility mandated by the federal government is too large and expensive.

The project’s initial estimate was $62 million, but is now more than $240 million, according to the Nov. 12 federal court filing from attorney Terrence S. Finn of the Roetzel & Andress law firm in Akron, which represents the city.

The city asked Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Ohio to permit the consent decree to be amended for the construction of a wet weather facility that could treat 80 million gallons of wastewater per day. The city hasn’t determined the cost of a smaller facility.

The federal government, which previously rejected a reduction in the scope of the work, had until Tuesday to object to the city’s motion to amend the decree.

But in a Monday joint filing, the federal government and the city asked for a joint motion to stay the case with Boyko granting it Tuesday.

In addition to stating city and federal officials “believe that they have reached an agreement in principle,” the motion reads that the two sides “will draft a proposed modification to the consent decree that will incorporate the agreement in principle and will be subject to final approval of each party.”

The two sides requested, and received, a 90-day stay “intended to allow the parties time to finalize their agreement,” the motion reads.

The modification is subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice and a 30-day public comment period and then final approval by the court, the motion reads.

The motion also stated the federal government withdrew its requests for information from the city regarding Youngstown’s objections to an Oct. 25 letter from the federal government asking for additional analysis of options to the wet weather facility.

In his Tuesday order, Boyko gave the two sides until Feb 26, 2025, to submit a joint status report on the settlement negotiations.

The dispute over the wet weather facility led the city to reopen the 2014 consent agreement case March 15.

The DOJ on Nov. 12 repeated its demand for half of a $1,479,000 penalty from Youngstown to be paid to the U.S. EPA because the city “defaulted” on following through with federally mandated wastewater improvements. The penalty was first brought up in a Sept. 29, 2023, letter.

The city has refused to pay. The other half – $739,500 – could be sought by the Ohio EPA, which has declined to seek the penalty.

In Monday’s filing, the two sides agreed to discuss potential resolutions and a settlement for the requested penalty.

Federal officials point out that work to the wet weather facility was to start Feb. 7, 2022, and “finalize design” work was to be done by this past July 29. The work hasn’t begun, except the city agreeing in May to spend $3 million on pre-design work.

A schedule attached with Finn’s Nov. 12 court filing shows the wet weather facility would be finished by Sept. 7, 2030.

Finn also wrote that the Ohio EPA approves of the city’s proposal to substitute the 100-million-gallon facility with an 80-million-gallon one but “wants Youngstown to obtain additional flow data to further validate the model. Youngstown has agreed to do so.”

The federal EPA had originally ordered the city in 2002 to do $310 million worth of work, but it was negotiated down to $160 million in 2014 with the expectation it would be finished in 20 years.

The city has tried to get that price down further, but federal authorities have refused those requests, resulting in the reopened court case.

The schedule attached to Finn’s Nov. 12 filing has the work done by Oct. 1, 2035.

Also, the city insists in court filings and interviews that if Youngstown complied with the mandates now the cost would be about $380 million to $400 million – well over twice what it agreed to do 10 years ago.

The first phase was upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant that have been completed.

The initial construction estimate was $37.3 million, but the city said it cost $70 million.

That work helped reduce the sewer overflows that would be part of the wet weather facility project, the city’s court filing states.

The wet weather facility was supposed to be phase two of the work.

The city approved $4.8 million on March 15 for design work to the third phase. That phase is an interceptor sewer project to keep wastewater from 13 lines from flowing into Mill Creek Park’s Lake Glacier and Lake Cohasset.

Design work was supposed to start July 11, 2020, and construction was to begin this April 5.

The city missed those deadlines, but plans a compressed schedule and finish the work 15 months earlier than the initial timeline. The city’s schedule has that work finished by Oct. 16, 2032.

That phase was estimated to cost $47.7 million and will now cost $72.5 million to $87.2 million, according to city estimates.