Pursuant to IC 13-30-2-1, no person may discharge, emit, cause, allow, or threaten to discharge, emit, cause, or allow any contaminant or waste including any noxious odor, either alone or in combination with contaminants from other sources, into the environment or into any publicly owned treatment works in any form which causes or would cause pollution that violates rules, standards, or discharge or emission requirements adopted by the appropriate board pursuant under this title.

Pursuant to IC 13-18-4-5, it is unlawful for any person to throw, run, drain, or otherwise dispose into any of the streams or waters of Indiana; or cause, permit, or suffer to be thrown, run, drained, allowed to seep, or otherwise disposed into any waters; any organic or inorganic matter that causes or contributes to a polluted condition of any waters, as determined by a rule of the board adopted under sections 1 and 3 of this chapter.

Pursuant to 327 IAC 5-2-2, any discharge of pollutants into the waters of the state as a point source discharge, except for exclusions made in 327 IAC 5-2-4, is prohibited unless in conformity with a valid NPDES permit obtained prior to the discharge.

Pursuant to 327 IAC 2-6.1-4(11), "objectionable substances" means substances that are: A) of a quantity and a type; and (B) present for a duration and in a location; so as to damage waters of the state, excluding hazardous substances, extremely hazardous substances, petroleum, and mixtures thereof.

Pursuant to 327 IAC 2-6.1-4(15), a spill is defined as any unexpected, unintended, abnormal, or unapproved dumping, leakage, drainage, seepage, discharge or other loss of petroleum, hazardous or otherwise objectionable substance.

Pursuant to 327 IAC 2-6.1-7, any person who operates, controls or maintains any mode of transportation or facility from which a spill occurs shall, upon discovery of a reportable spill to the soil or surface waters of the state: contain the spill, if possible, to prevent additional spilled material from entering the waters of the state; undertake or cause others to undertake activities needed to accomplish a spill response; as soon as possible, but within two (2) hours of discovery, communicate a spill report to the Department of Environmental Management, Office of Environmental Response: and submit a written spill report if requested in writing by the department.

The Town of Grabill owns and operates a sanitary wastewater collection system (the "sewer system") which services the Town of Grabill. The sewer system transports wastewater to the City of Fort Wayne for treatment at the Fort Wayne wastewater treatment plant.

An IDEM investigation has shown that discharges of wastewater occur from Manhole #2-4 in the sewer system. Manhole #2-4 is located on a gravity feed sewer to the Main Street Lift Station. The wastewater goes into a residential yard to the street, a catch basin, then to nearby Whitmer Ditch, which empties into the Saint Joseph River. The Town of Grabill had overflows on the following dates: April 28, 1999, May 18-19, 2000, May 28, 2000, June 25, 2000, February 9, 2001, and April 6, 2001.

The above noted overflows of wastewater from the sewer system to the soil and to surface waters of the state that occurred on the above dates were in violation of IC 13-30-2-1, IC 13-18-4-5, and 327 IAC 5-2-2.

The above noted overflows of wastewater from the sewer system to the soil and to surface waters of the state that occurred on April 28, 1999 and June 25, 2000 were not reported to IDEM by the Town of Grabill. The Town of Grabill’s failure to report these events, which constitute reportable spills, was in violation of 327 IAC 2-6.1-7.

The above overflows that occurred on May 28, 2000 and April 6, 2001 were not reported to IDEM as soon as possible and were not reported within two (2) hours of discovery. The Town of Grabill’s failure to timely report these events was in violation of 327 IAC 2-6.1-7.