A former supervisor with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority pleaded guilty on Wednesday to violating the Clean Water Act.
James Paprocki, 51, of Ross, will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV on Nov. 17.
Paprocki pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
His is the third case to have been charged related to the release of sludge into the Allegheny River from 2010 to 2017.
Paprocki was a supervisor at PWSA’s Aspinwall drinking water plant. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, he directed employees to discharge clarifier sludge — generated when raw water is converted into potable drinking water — into the river, which violated the agency’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination permit.
That sludge, prosecutors said, was required to be sent to ALCOSAN’s treatment facility — at a rate of up to 1 million gallons per day.
The permit required PWSA to install flow meters at the Aspinwall plant and report the daily sludge volume. However, some of the flow meters stopped working, so Paprocki and others at the plant estimated the amount of sludge going to ALCOSAN.
PWSA has also pleaded guilty to one count for violating its pollutant discharge permit and another for making false statements in written reports.
Sentencing, originally scheduled for July 8, has been postponed until Sept. 14.
As part of its plea agreement, the agency will pay $500,000 into a self-funded compliance program; will spend three years on probation; must submit annual reports and audits to both the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency; and may not raise its rates to pay the fine.
