The lawsuit over Unalaska’s wastewater treatment is officially over. The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency signed off today on an agreement that requires the City to upgrade its treatment facilities and pay a $340,000 fine.

When the EPA filed the lawsuit last June, it was asking for a $150 million fine. The agency said the City had violated the Clean Water Act thousands of times during the previous six years, discharging harmful levels of heavy metals and fecal coliform bacteria into Unalaska Bay. The City disputes those facts, saying today in a written statement, "There is no evidence of actual damage to the environment or diminishment of any threatened species by our current waste water [sic] treatment system."

Neverthless, the city has already started making upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant to bring discharge in line with national water quality standards. The changes are expected to cost $18 million. Although a large chunk of that money will come from state and federal grants, Unalaska residents can also expect to see rate increases of $80 a month or more on their sewer bills.

Read more here, here, here. Read the consent decree here.