NEW ORLEANS — The owners of the New Orleans Fair Grounds Racetrack have agreed to a seven-figure settlement with the EPA over the Mid-City racetrack's record of dumping urine, manure and wastewater into canals which eventually run to Lake Pontchartrain.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced the settlement in an email Tuesday.
The racetrack had been accused of violating the Clean Water Act by dumping waste products into the New Orleans sewer system. Specifically, the government's complaint against the racetrack alleged that since at least 2012, Fair Grounds had regularly dumped untreated process wastewater into the city's storm sewer system in a path running through the city, into Lake Pontchartrain, into the Mississippi River and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the agreement, Churchill Downs Louisiana Horseracing Company will eliminate the facility's unauthorized discharge of manure, urine and wastewater into the London Avenue Canal through a series of construction projects with an estimated pricetag of $5.6 million.
During a typical horseracing season, Fair Grounds stables as many as 1,800 horses or more at one time, according to prosecutors.
The company has also agreed to a $2.79 million fine, which federal prosecutors say is the largest ever paid by an animal feeding operation in the U.S. over clean water violations.
“We are pleased to announce an agreement with Churchill Downs to address years of Clean Water Act violations at its Fair Grounds Racetrack in New Orleans,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Brightbill of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in an emailed statement. “This consent decree will stop the flow of untreated process wastewater into the local sewer system, which leads to local waters used for fishing and ultimately Lake Pontchartrain, in a way that recognizes the challenges presented by the racetrack’s urban location.”
The racetrack's CWA permit prohibits any kind of discharge unless there is a significant rain event -- defined as 10 inches of rain or more over a 24-hour period.
The federal complaint brought to the U.S. Attorney's Office by the EPA claims that the racetrack dumped waste into the city's canals more than 250 times over the past eight years.
The untreated wastewater reportedly contained manure, urine, horse wash water, and other biological materials that are “pollutants” as defined by the CWA.
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