Heavy runoff caused sanitary sewer overflows in the Town of La Plata, Maryland. At the La Plata Wastewater Reclamation Facility, high influxes of clear water washed away much of the bacteria colony in the sand filters.A 2001 U.S. EPA mandate to update the treatment plant to biological nutrient removal didn’t include what was really needed — additional equalization tanks. Frequent SSOs, which began in 1988, forced the town into a 2005 consent decree with the state Department of the Environment to reduce inflow and infiltration. Other consent orders followed. Under the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement, the plant also faced compliance
