BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, which owns and operates Suffolk Downs will pay a civil penalty of $1.25 million to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act.
The company will spend more than $3 million to prevent polluted water from entering nearby waterways. A consent decree was lodged in federal court in Boston on Wednesday.
Suffolk Downs is a 161-acre thoroughbred racing facility located in East Boston and Revere, Mass.
The EPA alleged that Suffolk allowed polluted wastewater, including horse manure, urine and bedding material, to discharge into Sales Creek, a tributary of Belle Isle Inlet and Boston Harbor. Because 500 or more horses are stabled at the facility for at least 45 days of the year, Suffolk Downs is considered a large concentrated animal feeding operation. Suffolk operates its CAFO without a CWA permit.
The EPA said its inspections revealed that Suffolk Down's process wastewater discharged from the facility to Sales Creek during dry and wet weather. Inspector said they observed stormwater contaminated with manure and turbid,.
Suffolk also is completing construction of a wastewater collection system, making improvements to its stormwater collection system and has applied for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, permit according to the EPA.