Evansville Sues to Clean Up Sewers

In a first of its kind lawsuit, the city of Evansville is filing a claim against three of its insurance providers to recover costs associated with repairing combined sewer overflow problems. Evansville, like many bigger U.S. cities, has been put on notice by the Environmental Protection Agency. The city uses the same sewer lines in many areas to channel storm and waste water to the treatment plant. When heavy rains hit, the plant can not handle all the water, and some of it is discharged directly into area waterways. This is known as a combined sewer overflow, or CSO. The EPA is giving Evansville two decades to fix the problem, which will cost an estimated $200 million. Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel thinks there may be a way to get some of that money from the companies which insured the city over the last several decades. "Taxpayers paid for the premiums, and if we can recover some of it, we have an obligation to sue," Weinzapfel said at a Tuesday press conference. Environmental attorney George Plew is lead council in the case. He called the order from EPA to fix the citys CSOs an "unexpected liability." Plew says he is confident that the city can and will recuperate money from the companies based upon that logic. "When the CSOs were installed, they were state of the art technology," said Plew. "Growth and the passage of time and changes of standards led to liability claims that are being made by the agencies today." Plew and his law firm have taken on the case on contingency, which means he wont get paid unless he wins. It could take three years for the suit to works its way through Indiana courts. Plew says he believes "in his bones" that Evansville will win at least some compensation.