The equivalent test's federal case: $132 million of sewers, agreed, not fought

2014–2036 — United States and State of Indiana v. City of Mishawaka, 3:14CV281

The case: The equivalent test expressly includes federal cases, and Mishawaka has exactly one of the first rank. On 12 February 2014 the United States and the State of Indiana lodged a consent decree against the City of Mishawaka in the Northern District of Indiana (Civil Action No. 3:14CV281; Federal Register notice 21 February 2014), alleging Clean Water Act violations — combined-sewer overflows discharging untreated sewage to the St. Joseph River in wet weather and some dry. The decree, entered 27 May 2014 on the EPA's tracking record, obliges the city to build roughly $132.1 million (2007 dollars) of sewer collection, storage, conveyance and treatment improvements sufficient to eliminate combined-sewer overflows in a typical year, completed by 31 December 2031 — or 31 December 2036 on demonstrated financial hardship — and to pay a civil penalty of $28,000, split equally between the United States and Indiana. The decree states that Mishawaka agreed the complaint states claims upon which relief may be granted, and rates the city's compliance cost a "High Burden" under the EPA's Financial Capability Matrix. It closed a regional trio: Elkhart (2011) and South Bend (2012) had settled their own overflow cases before it, some $800 million combined.

The three tests, printed working: (1) Documented — yes, at the highest level this section recognizes: a federal complaint and an entered decree. (2) Genuinely contested — no, and the failure is the point of printing the case here: a consent decree is an agreement, not a fight; the city did not litigate the claims, and the decree's own text records its agreement that the complaint states them. (3) City-significant — yes, beyond any other item in this addendum: a nine-figure, two-decade public-works obligation is the largest money consequence any official proceeding has ever laid on this city. The decree is therefore printed as the federal test's full answer and simultaneously as its limit: Mishawaka's biggest official money case is not a money fight, and the controversies leg's discipline does not allow it to be shelved as one. Its institutional home is the city's utilities and government record; it is carried in this addendum because the equivalent test asked for it by name.

Sources:

1. U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. EPA announcements and the consent decree text, United States and State of Indiana v. City of Mishawaka, No. 3:14CV281 (N.D. Ind., lodged 12 February 2014); Federal Register notice, 21 February 2014 (FR Doc. 2014-03714); EPA CSO consent-decree tracking (entered 27 May 2014).